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Lyman  Hotchkiss  Atwater,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


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ADDRESSES 

DELIVERED     AT    THE     FUNERAL 


LYMAN   IIOTCIIKISS  ATWATER,  D.D.,  IL.ll. 

PROFESSOR  OF   LOGIC   AND   MORAL  AND   POLITICAL  SCIENCE   IN   THE 
COLLEGE  OF  NEW  JERSEY, 

IN 

THE   FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH, 

PRINCETON,    N.    J., 

TUESDAY,     FEBRUARY     20,     1883 


A   MEMORIAL   DISCOURSE, 

DELIVERED   IN  THE  COLLEGE  CHAPEL 
ON 

THE   EVENING    OF    BACCALAUREATE   SUNDAY, 
JUNE    17,    1883, 

PUBLISHED   BY  REQUEST  OF  THE  TRUSTEES. 


NEW    YORK : 
ANSON    D.    F.    RANDOLPH    &    CO., 

900   BROADWAY,   COR.   20TH   ST. 


INTRODUCTORY    NOTE. 


This  Memorial  of  Dr.  Lyman  H.  Atwater  has  been 
published  in  accordance  with  the  wishes  of  his  family 
and  friends,  and  by  request  of  the  Trustees  of  Princeton 
College.     Only  a  few  prefatory  words  are  needed. 

After  an  active  service  to  the  College  of  more  than 
twenty-eight  years,  Dr.  Atwater  was  laid  aside  by  sick- 
ness in  October  last.  A  few  months  of  struggle  with 
mortal  disease,  in  which  hopes  and  fears  fluctuated, 
followed.  He  died  on  Saturday  morning,  February  17, 
1883.  On  Tuesday  afternoon,  February  20th,  he  was 
buried  with  impressive  services.  Prayer  was  offered  at  his 
lateresidenceby  the  venerable  Ex-President  of  the  College, 
John  Maclean,  D.D.,  LL.D.  The  remains  were  then 
borne  to  the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  accompanied  by 
the  students  of  the  College  and  the  Theological  Seminary. 
There  a  very  large  congregation  assembled,  filling  the 
church  to  its  utmost  capacity,  in  which  the  Trustees  of 
the  College,  the  Trustees  and  Directors  of  the  Theologi- 
cal Seminary,  and  the  Presbytery  of  New  Brunswick  were 
largely  represented.  Hundreds  of  Dr.  Atwater's  old 
pupils  and  friends  were  also  there  to  join  in  the  last  trib- 
utes of  respect  and  affection.  It  was  significant  of  the 
esteem  in  which  Dr.  Atwater  was  held  by  his  townsmen, 
that  many  of  the  places  of  business  were  closed  during 
the  funeral  services. 

The  devotional  services  at  the  church  were  conducted 


by  the  Pastor,  Rev.  Horace  G.  Hinsdale,  and  by  the  Rev. 
Dr.  John  T.  Duffield,  of  the  College  Faculty. 

The  Addresses  of  Dr.  Noah  Porter,  President  of  Yale 
College,  the  classmate  and  life-long  friend  of  Dr.  Atwater ; 
of  Dr.  McCosh,  President  of  Princeton  College ;  and  of 
Dr.  A.  A.  Hodge,  of  Princeton  Theological  Seminary, 
are  printed  in  this  Memorial  in  the  order  of  their  delivery. 
Subsequently  the  Rev.  Dr.  Wm.  M.  Taylor,  of  New  York, 
v/as  requested  by  the  Faculty  to  prepare  a  Discourse, 
commemorating  the  life  and  services  of  Dr.  Atwater,  to  be 
given  at  the  ensuing  Commencement,  on  the  evening 
of  Baccalaureate  Sunday — a  request  with  which  he  kindly 
complied.  It  is  believed  by  the  committee  of  the  Faculty 
to  whom  the  publication  of  this  Memorial  was  entrusted, 
that  in  these  varied  and  excellent  delineations  of  Dr. 
Atwater's  life  and  character,  a  permanent  and  valuable 
record  has  been  secured  of  one,  whose  loss  will  be  long 
and  deeply  felt. 


ADDRESS 


THE  REV.   NOAH   PORTER,   D.D.,   LL.D., 

President  of  Yale  College. 


ADDRESS. 


A  Sketch  of  the  Life  and  Character  of  the  Rev,  Lyman 
H.  Atwater,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  by  his  Friend  and  Classmate, 
the  Rev.  Noah  Porter,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  President  of  Yale 
College. 

Fifty-five  years  ago  last  September  I  met  our 
deceased  friend  for  the  first  time  in  front  of  the  old 
South  College  at  Yale.  We  had  just  been  admit- 
ted to  the  College  as  members  of  the  same  class.  He 
was  then  an  overgrown  boy,  and  I  was  scarcely  half- 
grown.  New  Haven  had  been  his  home  from  in- 
fancy, and  I  was  a  timid  stranger.  Though  he  was 
somewhat  younger  than  myself,  his  sturdy  look,  his 
assured  air,  and  his  generous  bearing  at  once  attract- 
ed my  attention,  and  won  my  confidence  at  first  sight. 
Circumstances  soon  brought  us  closely  together  and 
we  became  more  and  more  intimate  till  the  end  of 
our  college  life.  Subsequently  we  were  united  more 
closely  and  have  adhered  the  more  tenaciously,  per- 
haps, because  circumstances  now  and  then  threaten- 
ed to  sunder  us.  We  have  been  loyal  to  one  another 
when  theological  differences  and  personal  associa- 
tions might  easily  have  caused  us  to  drift  farther  and 


farther  apart.  Perhaps  we  have  valued  our  friend- 
ship the  more  because  it  has  cost  us  an  occasional 
struggle  to  retain  it.  And  now  I  am  here  to  say  a 
few  w^ords  concerning  this  beloved  and  honored 
friend  of  more  than  half  a  century. 

But  I  forget  myself:  I  ought  perhaps  not  to  have 
said  so  much  about  Dr.  Atwater's  relations  to  myself, 
and.  yet  perhaps  it  was  appropriate  that  I  should  ex- 
plain the  confidence  and  freedom  with  which  I 
propose  to  speak.  Moreover,  it  may  not  have  been 
amiss — certainly  it  is  not  unnatural  in  the  presence 
of  a  college  audience — to  recognize  the  strength  and 
importance  of  college  friendship,  as  one  of  the  most 
valuable  incidents  of  college  life. 

Dr.  Atwater  was  born  at  Cedar  Hill,  then  on  the 
border  of  New  Haven,  about  two  miles  from  the  centre 
of  the  city, — a  place  once  unique  for  its  picturesque 
surroundings,  and  still  attractive  amid  the  miscellane- 
ous buildings  which  have  gathered  about  it  on  the  out- 
skirts of  a  rapidly  growing  town, — as  a  drop  of  gold 
shines  in  the  soiled  and  tangled  fringe  of  a  rich  gar- 
ment. His  home  lies  under  the  shadow  of  East  Rock, 
which  it  boldly  confronts,  and  which  during  his  infancy 
and  youth  invited  him  to  constant  adventure  and  ac- 
tivity. H  is  father  was  a  man  of  restless  enterprise  and 
of  great  endurance,  who  added  to  the  management  of 
a  large  farm,  the  conduct  of  a  great  variety  of  under- 
takings, both  at  home  and  in   distant    places.     He 


was  descended  from  one  of  the  first  planters  of  New 
Haven,  whose  ancestral  home  still  stands  in  the  south 
of  England,  and  nearwhich, though  hewasthe  strictest 
of  Puritans,  the  tomb  of  one  of  his  forefathers  in  the 
church  at  Lenham,  Kent,  continues  to  bespeak  the 
prayers  of  the  visitor  for  the  repose  of  his  soul.     Dr. 
Atvvater    had    a  right  to    the   conservative  feelings 
which  might  befit  the  descendant  ofa  sturdy  and  hon- 
ored line  of  ancestors  traceable  beyond  the  English 
Reformation.     Di".    Atwater's  mother  was  a  woman 
who  combined  energy  with  sweetness,  and  controlled 
a  large  household  with  eminent  success.     It  was  the 
delight  of  our  friend  during  his  college  life  to  invite 
a  select  company  of  his  classmates  every  summer  to 
visit  this  hospitable  home   to   feast  upon  the  fruits 
with  which  it  abounded,  and  to  show  them  the  house 
and  grounds  of  which    he    was    reasonably    proud. 
From  his  youth  he  gave  signs  of  the  energetic,  warm- 
hearted, outspoken,  and  loyal  nature  which  he  inher- 
ited and  which  ripened  into  a  strongly-marked  and 
demonstrative  character.     From  his  boyhood  he  was 
interested  in  public  affairs  of  every  sort,  beginning 
with  the  church  which  was  the  terminus  of  his  week- 
ly drive  on  Sunday,  and    to    the    associations  with 
which  he  was  loyal  till  his  death  ;  and  embracing  that 
political  party  in  the  State  which  in  the  early  time 
had  ruled  in  the  Land  of  Steady  Habits.     To  all  the 
memories  of  his  childhood  he  was  passionately  de- 


lO 


voted.  At  the  funeral  of  Dr.  Bacon  he  remarked 
that  at  the  age  of  twelve  years  he  was  present  at  his 
ordination  :  and  it  was  always  noticeable  how  distinct- 
ly and  sacredly  were  depicted  in  his  memory  all  the 
scenes  of  his  earlier  and  later  life.  Within  two  or  three 
years  before  his  death,  he  deliberately  made  several 
tours  through  several  of  the  country  towns  of  Connec- 
ticut and  called  at  the  hospitable  homes  with  which  he 
had  been  familiar  in  his  college  and  later  life,  that  he 
might  revive  the  faded  pictures  which  were  still 
lovingly  cherished  in  his  memory. 

As  a  student  he  was  diligent  and  successful,  not 
painfully  laborious,  but  always  working  easily ;  with 
few  of  the  habits  of  the  exact  philologist  or  mathe- 
matician, but  still  shrinking  from  no  tough  sentence 
or  hard  problem,  and  always  bringing  to  his  work  a 
cheerful  temper  and  a  brave  and  self-relying  under- 
standing which  disdained  defeat.  He  was  intensely 
interested  in  all  the  activities  and  enjoyments  of 
college  life.  At  his  graduation  he  took  the  second 
honor  of  the  class,  by  an  accident  which  threw  out 
of  the  contest  his  nearest  rival.  This  rival  was 
a  South  Carolinian  of  intense  ambition,  who  would 
conquer  at  any  cost,  and  had  not  a  few  other  ad- 
vantages. Dr.  Atwater  was  brave  and  zealous,  but 
he  was  never  consumed,  least  of  all  was  never  debased, 
by  ambition.  He  was  energetic  and  self-relying, 
but  he  was  too  reasonable  to  sell  the  freedom  and 


II 

the  joys  of  intellectual  sympathy  and  generous  com- 
panionship for  any  sordid  ends.  He  was  always 
sunny,  hopeful,  ready  for  a  problem  or  a  discussion, 
and  never  so  exhilarated  as  when  there  was  a  chance 
for  a  debate,  a  description,  or  a  harangue.  He  was 
eminently  practical  and  pre-eminently  fond  of  public 
discussion.  In  the  Literary  Society  to  which  he 
and  his  special  friends  were  attached,  he  found  his  chief 
delight  and  the  chosen  field  for  his  activity.  His 
ideal  of  intellectual  achievement  was  an  elaborate 
argument  or  an  eloquent  appeal,  and  in  these  activities 
he  aspired  after  eminence  with  a  generous  and  con- 
fident ambition. 

From  his  earliest  years  he  had  been  trained  in  re- 
ligious ways.  All  his  associations  had  been  reverent 
and  devout.  The  searching  appeals  of  his  first  pas- 
tor and  the  practical  reasonings  of  the  second,  fol- 
lowed as  they  were  by  the  logical  discourses  of  Dr. 
Fitch  in  the  college  chapel,  had  kept  alive  serious  con- 
victions in  respect  to  truth  and  duty.  All  at  once 
these  smouldering  embers  were  kindled  into  a  glow- 
ing flame.  In  the  winter  and  spring  of  1831,  New 
Haven,  as  also  Yale  College,  was  the  scene  of  a  re- 
markable religious  awakening.  It  was  in  the  season 
of  meetings  of  four  days  of  continued  services,  and 
other  novel  devices.  The  churches  of  New  England 
were  moved  by  a  religious  excitement,  which  was 
more  general  and   earnest  than  any  other  religious 


12 


movement  in  its  history  since  tlie  great  awakening 
of  1740.  It  was  even  believed  by  not  a  few  sober- 
minded  thinkers,  that  possibly  the  days  of  the  mil- 
lennial triumphs  were  at  hand,  and  the  Kingdom 
of  God  might  speedily  come  with  sudden  glory. 
Whatever  these  days  might  have  been  to  others,  to 
the  class  of  1831  they  were  remarkable  indeed.  In 
January  of  that  year,  perhaps  eleven  of  the  eighty-one 
who  composed  the  class  might  have  avowed  them- 
selves as  in  some  sense  the  disciples  of  Christ.  In 
May  of  that  year  there  were  scarcely  eleven  of  the 
eighty-one  who  did  not  claim  the  Christian's  faith 
and  hope.  Among  the  sixty  or  more  to  whom  this 
sudden  and  conscious  transformation  came,  was  our 
deceased  friend.  To  him,  as  to  all  manly  souls,  the 
experience  involved  earnest  convictions  and  the  de- 
liberate surrendering  of  the  heart  and  the  life.  I 
occupied  the  room  opposite,  and  knew  that  for  many 
days  with  him  this  struggle  was  severe,  but  it  was 
thorough  and  complete. 

When  it  was  over  he  was  as  hearty  in  his  new  life 
as  he  had  been  in  the  old,  and  brought  to  its  duties 
and  its  sacrifices  the  whole-souled  ardor  and  the 
practical  good  sense  which  were  ingrained  in  his 
character.  To  decide  that  the  ministry  was  to  be 
his  profession  was  in  those  days  almost  an  inevitable 
consequence  of  assuming  Christian  vows,  unless  the 
reasons  for  exemption  were  decisive.     Of  his  class- 


13 

mates  some  thirty- four  were  ordained  to  the  Chris- 
tian ministry.     The  first  year  after  graduating   Dr. 
Atwater  spent  as  chief  assistant  in  a  boarding-school 
in  Baltimore,  in  which  he  gained  some  hard  experi- 
ences and  added  to  his  sturdy  strength.     The  second 
year  he  began  his  theological  studies  in  the  Semi- 
nary at  Yale  and  occupied  the  same  room  with  the 
speaker,  who  was  then  teaching  in  New  Haven.     Not 
long  before  all  the  churches  of  New  England  and 
largely  those  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  were  begin- 
ning to  be  agitated  by  an  active  theological  contro- 
versy, which  was  more  or  less  definitely  concerned 
with  the  theology  which  was  taught  or  supposed  to 
be  taught  at  New  Haven.     Two  or  three  years  pre- 
vious, Coleridge's  "  Aids  to  Reflection,"  then  recently 
published,  had  also  attracted  the  attention  of  a  few 
thoughtful    men  at  New  Haven,  conspicuously  of 
Dr.  Atwater  and  his   friends.      The    philosophy  of 
Coleridge,  so  far  as  it  was  a  philosophy  with  its  sug- 
gestive distinction  between  the  Reason  and  the  Un- 
derstanding in  Kantian  phrase,  was  not  acceptable 
to  Dr.  Taylor,  who  adhered  tenaciously  to  the  state- 
ments of  Locke  and  Reid,  with  his  own  modifica- 
tions.    Coleridge's    doctrine  of  a  "  Nature    in    the 
Will "  as  the  philosophical  explanation  of  what  was 
then  called  native  depravity^  was  still  more  offensive 
to  him.     Dr.  Atwater  was  for  a  while  an  avowed  ad- 
herent of  Coleridge's  theology,  at  least  so  far  as  it 


14 

diverged  from  that  of  the  New  Haven  school.  He 
could  do  nothing  by  halves,  and  he  was  as  earnest,  out- 
spoken, and  tenacious  in  his  new  opinions,  as  strong 
convictions  and  warm  feelings  could  make  him. 
The  reading  and  speaking  and  thinking  and  writing 
to  which  this  new  inspiration  compelled  him,  quick- 
ened him  to  new  intellectual  life.  This  devotion  to 
Coleridge  was,  however,  but  temporary.  In  the  sub- 
sequent occupations  of  his  parish  work  and  the  further 
development  of  his  theological  views  he  left  Coleridge 
behind,  although  he  never  ceased  to  acknowledge  his 
immense  indebtedness  to  him  in  widening  and  stim- 
ulating his  mind  at  a  critical  period  of  his  opening 
life.  At  the  close  of  the  first  year  of  his  theological 
studies,  in  the  autumn  of  1833,  ^^  ^he  age  of  a  little 
more  than  twenty,  he  was  elected  tutor  in  Yale  Col- 
lege and  entered  immediately  upon  the  duties  of  his 
office,  prosecuting  his  theological  course  at  the  same 
time.  I  speak  with  confidence  in  respect  to  his  career, 
for  we  were  associates  in  both  occupations.  He  en- 
tered upon  his  duties  as  tutor  with  characteristic  en- 
ergy and  zeal.  The  college  from  his  childhood  had 
been  the  object  of  his  love  and  honor.  The  tradi- 
tions of  its  leading  men  were  living  powers  to  his 
ardent  and  reverent  affection.  It  was  his  fervent 
and  hearty  faith  that  its  order  and  efficiency  depend- 
ed upon  the  zeal  and  fidelity  of  its  officers.  This 
faith  inspired  his  actions.     It  was  also  at  a  time  when 


15 

faithful  oversight  and  administration  involved  cour- 
age and  sometimes  personal  exposure,  especially  on 
the  part  of  the  tutors,  and  when  more  or  less  of  severe 
police  duty  was  required.  Dr.  Atwater  entered  into 
all  these  duties  with  his  whole  heart  and  with  an 
energy  and  spirit  which  have  been  rarely  surpassed. 
He  showed  himself  at  once  to  be  a  born  administra- 
tor ;  fearless,  inventive,  and  generous  —  an  ardent 
lover  of  young  men  and  yet  not  ignorant  of  their 
devices.  The  lessons  which  he  gained  from  this 
early  experience  subsequently  proved  of  immense  ser- 
vice to  him  in  the  long  course  of  useful  service  which 
he  has  rendered  to  this  honored  college.  Indeed  in  all 
his  habits  he  was  eminently  fitted  to  learn  from  experi- 
ence, rarely  forgetting  a  significant  event  or  incident 
and  always  seeing  the  principle  or  analogy  which  it 
illustrated.  To  the  end  of  his  life  the  memorable 
events  of  his  own  tutorship  v/ere  distinct  and  vivid 
in  his  memory,  and  could  be  distinctly  cited  as  ex- 
amples of  some  important  truth  in  respect  to  student 
life  and  college  administration. 

After  serving  as  tutor  nearly  two  years  he  was  in- 
stalled as  pastor  of  the  Congregational  church  in 
Fairfield,  Connecticut.  The  parish  was  an  ideal 
country  parish,  especially  for  a  hearty,  reverent,  and 
conservative  spirit  like  his,  which  cherished  every  New 
England  tradition  in  Church  and  State.  It  was 
twenty-two  miles  from  New  Haven,  where  his  own 


i6 

numerous  kindred  and  those   of  his   newly-married 
wife  resided.     It  was  on  the  high-road  to  New  York, 
along  which  several  lines  of  stages  carried  their  nu- 
merous freight  of  distinguished  personages,  who  might 
every  day  be  heard  of  at  the  village  hotel.     It  was 
within  sound  of  the  sea,  whose  gentle  murmur  or 
resounding  strokes  could  always  be  heard  along  the 
beautiful  beach,  which  was  just  at  hand,  though  out 
of  sight.     Its  local  traditions  were  manifold  and  dis- 
tinguished.    At  three  and  one-half  miles  distance  the 
spire  of  Greenfield   Hill  indicated   the   place  where 
Dr.  Dwight  had  lived  and  made  the  place  famous  by 
his  person  and  his  instructions.     The  town  was  one 
of  the  oldest  in  Connecticut,  and  in  the  war  of  Inde- 
pendence was  wealthy  and  aristocratic  enough  to  be 
singled  out  for  a  memorable  conflagration,  which 
left  only  a  few  houses  standing.     It  had  slowly  re- 
covered from  this  disaster  and  was  the  residence  of 
many  families  of  culture  and  wealth,  and  of  many 
more  who  were  intelligent  and  self-respecting  house- 
holders.     It  was  a  half-shire  town  with  a  jail   and  a 
court-house,  in  which  lawyers  gathered  in  term  time, 
in  the  society  of  whom  Dr.  Atwater  always  delight- 
ed, and  of  whom  he  never  tired  to  repeat  interesting 
stories.     Prominent  among  his  parishioners  was  one 
of  the  most  distinguished,  if  not  the  most  distin- 
guished, of  the  lawyers  of  Connecticut,  the   Hon. 
Roger  Minott  Sherman,  whose  stately,  yet  graceful 


17 

bearing,  whose  classic  English,  whose  acute  discrim- 
ination and  impressive  appeals  were  not  more  re- 
markable than  his  affable  courtesy,  his  tender  human- 
ity, his  theological  acumen,  and  his  humble  piety. 
He  was  a  man  who,  but  for  the  unfortunate  necessi- 
ties of  Connecticut  politics,  would  have  stood  by 
Clay,  Webster,  and  Calhoun  in  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States,  nor  stood  abashed ;  and  yet  was 
always  ready  to  second  his  pastor  in  the  familiar 
exposition  of  Christian  truth  in  the  meetings  of  the 
church.  From  a  little  gem  of  a  village,  about  two 
miles  and  a  half  distant,  came  a  few  choice  families 
regularly  to  church,  among  whom  were  the  two 
brothers  Marquand,  who  have  connected  their  names 
with  Princeton  and  Yale  by  their  wise  and  princely  lib- 
erality. The  earlier  pastors  of  the  church  were  men 
of  mark.  Andrew  Eliot,  President  Heman  Hum- 
phrey, and  Dr.  Nathaniel  Hewit  were  honored  names. 
Such  a  place  w^as  pre-eminently  suited  to  the  tastes 
and  character  of  the  young  pastor,  who  made  his 
home  here  at  the  age  of  twenty-two.  He  entered  at 
once  into  hearty  sympathy  with  the  responsibilities 
of  the  pastoral  office,  and  with  characteristic  ardor 
into  "  the  care  of  all  the  churches,"  during  a  period 
of  crisis  and  excitement.  Here  he  continued  for 
more  than  nineteen  years,  till  his  election  to  the 
newly  established  chair  of  mental  and  moral  philos- 
ophy in  this  college  in  1854.     During  all  his  pastor- 


i8 

ate,  the  churches  of  Connecticut  were  agitated  by 
two  active  controversies,  in  both  of  which  Dr.  At- 
water  was  conspicuous.  No  one  who  knew  him 
could  doubt  that  his  convictions  were  sincere  and 
positive,  and  as  Httle  that  his  abiHty  was  conspicu 
ous.  As  httle  could  it  be  questioned  that  he  was 
upright  and  friendly  in  his  feelings  toward  the  men 
whose  opinions  he  controverted.  Of  the  three  an- 
tagonists whom  he  most  frequently  encountered,  Dr. 
Taylor  had  been  the  pastor  of  his  childhood,  Dr. 
Bacon  of  his  riper  years,  and  Dr.  Bushnell  he  knew 
and  admired  as  a  brilliant  preacher  and  writer.  If  his 
feelings  were  warm  and  his  declarations  were  positive, 
he  was  never  bitter  or  acrimonious.  While  he  was  de- 
cided in  his  positions  and  unflinching  in  sharp  criti- 
cism and  heated  debate,  he  was  uniformly  cordial  in 
his  greetings  and  friendly  in  his  intercourse  with 
every  one  whom  he  assailed. 

In  respect  to  the  earlier  movements  of  his  mind 
which  finally  led  to  his  decided  dissent  from  what 
was  then  called  the  New  Divinity,  I  may  speak 
with  intelligence  and  earnestness,  because  no  living 
person  knows  so  much  of  them  as  myself.  I  affirm 
with  entire  confidence  that  it  was  the  practical  ex- 
cesses which  attended  the  revivalism  of  those  days  far 
more  than  its  metaphysical  theology  which  offended 
his  tastes  and  controlled  his  convictions.  He  could 
not  tolerate  its  shallow  conceptions  of  Christian  experi- 


19 

ence,  its  fanatical  applications  with  respect   to  the 
Christian  life,  or  its  violence  to  the  refined  humanities 
into  which  centuries  of  Christian  culture  had  blos- 
somed.    He  was  in  nature  and  by  training  a  born 
conservative  in  these  particulars.     His  personal  and 
parochial  associations  confirmed  these  tastes.     His 
feelings  required  a  positive  definiteness  in  the  phrase- 
ology of  his  creed,  a  grave  decorum  in  the  homage 
of  his  worship,  and  a  sweet  charitableness  in   the 
manifestations  of  the  Christian  life.     The  associa- 
tions of  his  parish  and  its  vicinity  strengthened  these 
sympathies.      He  was  the  pastor  of  a  parish   which 
was  sturdily,  yet  decorously  conservative   in   all  its 
traditions  and  ways.     He  was  associated  with  cleri- 
cal brethren  who  were  disinclined  to  change — men 
strong,  fervent,  logical,  and  eloquent.  He  delighted  in 
nothing    so   much  as  in  criticism  and   debate,   and 
was  accustomed  to  discussion  and  controversy.     He 
was  eager  and  earnest,  because  he  thought  and  felt 
strongly,  and  hence  it  happened  that,  though   pos- 
sessed of  the  kindest  of  natures,  he  became  a  man  of 
war  from  his  youth.     But  even  in  the  fiery  ardor  of 
his  youth  he  was  chivalrous  in  his  feelings,  and  never 
ceased  to  honor  the  antagonists  whom  he  assailed, 
remembering  always  that  he   had  reverenced  them 
in    his   childhood   and   honored   them   in   his    riper 
years. 

For  the  last  fifteen  years  of  his  life  the  remem- 


20 

brance  of  these  collisions  seemed  to  have  been  grad- 
ually effaced  on  both  sides.  In  these  later  days  not 
the  slightest  embarrassment  disturbed  his  warm  and 
frequent  interviews  with  his  old  friends,  and  he  en- 
joyed his  frequent  visits  to  the  scenes  of  his  child- 
hood and  the  friends  of  his  earlier  years  with  a  zest 
that  was  delightful  to  them  and  to  himself. 

In  May,  1872,  he  was  present  at  the  semi-centen- 
nial anniversary  of  the  Divinity  School  of  New 
Haven  as  an  alumnus,  and  I  have  no  doubt  it  was 
with  extreme  pleasure,  as  one  of  the  most  delightful 
acts  of  his  life,  that  he  pronounced  a  glowing  eulogy 
upon  Dr.  Taylor  as  his  pastor  and  theological  teacher, 
followed,  as  was  fitting,  with  a  tribute  equally  warm 
to  the  two  eminent  friends  of  his  active  life,  Drs. 
Charles  Hodge  and  Nathaniel  Hewit.  Referring 
to  the  other  teachers  of  the  Seminary,  Drs.  Good- 
rich, Fitch,  and  Gibbs,  he  gave  the  following  mem- 
orable testimony,  which  will  be  heard  with  a  new 
interest  by  this  great  assembly  who  mourn  him  in 
his  death  :  "  Constrained,  as  I  have  been  in  the  con- 
flicts of  the  past  generations,  to  take  a  different  view 
from  these  distinguished  men  of  some  great  issues  in 
metaphysics  and  divinity,  I  rejoice,  my  brethren, 
that,  however  we  then  thought,  or  may  think,  we 
differ,  or  do  differ  in  our  thinking,  we  can  look 
over  these  barriers  and  find  a  higher,  indissoluble 
'unity  of  faith'   in  the  one   body  of  which  we  are 


21 


members ;  the  one  Spirit  by  which  we  are  sealed ; 
one  hope  by  which  we  live ;  one  Lord,  our  Prophet, 
Priest,  and  King ;  one  faith  by  which  we  live  in  and 
through  and  unto  Him ;  one  baptism  in  the  name 
of  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  the  Trinity  in 
unity,  to  whom  be  glory  forever." 

In  a  similar  spirit  he  accepted  the  reunion  of  the 
divided  portions  of  the  Presbyterian  church  in 
thorough  good  faith,  and  labored  cordially  and  effi- 
ciently for  the  welfare  of  the  body  when  reunited,  and 
most  heartily  rejoiced  in  the  successful  consequences 
of  a  measure  of  which  at  first  he  might  have  ques- 
tioned the  expediency  and  practicability.  And  here 
let  me  say,  once  for  all,  that  if  there  were  any  quali- 
ties for  which  he  was  conspicuous  they  were  gener- 
osity and  magnanimity  in  his  public  and  personal 
relations.  Though  positive  in  assertion  and  earnest 
in  debate,  though  sharp  in  criticism  and  at  times 
vehement  in  invective,  he  was  eminently  kind  in  his 
feelings,  just  in  his  aims  and  desires,  and  magnani- 
mous in  his  deeds. 

As  a  pastor  and  friend  Dr.  Atwater  was  respected 
and  loved.  The  people  of  his  charge  had  been  train- 
ed to  old-time  ways  of  courtesy  and  reverence,  and 
Dr.  Atwater  believed  in  the  solid  virtues  and  ancient 
manners  of  the  earlier  generations.  How  pleasantly 
he  went  in  and  out  before  his  people  it  is  not  for  me 
to  describe.     It  is  enough  to  know  that  he  always 


22 

delighted  to  revisit  them,  and  that  the  remembrances 
of  his  parish  life  were  always  fresh  and  fragrant  to 
his  thoughts.  It  is  interesting  also  to  know  that  the 
last  sermon  which  he  preached  was  to  his  old  peo- 
ple in  Fairfield. 

I  have  already  spoken  of  Drs,  Hewit  and  Hodge 
as  the  two  prominent  friends  of  his  maturer  life. 
Each  of  these  gentlemen  was  the  object  of  his  fer- 
vent admiration  and  unshaken  confidence.  The 
first  fascinated  him  by  his  fervid  earnestness,  his 
splendid  eloquence,  and  his  rapt  devotion.  The 
other  held  him  by  his  abundant  learning,  his  lucid 
statements,  and  his  practical  wisdom,  and  became 
to  him  a  reverend  father  and  a  most  trusted  friend. 
Both  satisfied  his  strong  yet  confiding  nature,  and 
greatly  enlarged  the  happiness  of  his  life.  For  these, 
as  for  all  his  friends,  he  was  generous  in  his  love  and 
unwearied  in  act  and  sacrifice. 

In  1854  he  began  his  new  career  at  Princeton. 
His  early  studies  had  been  characteristically  meta- 
physical. His  reading  of  Coleridge  had  greatly  stim- 
ulated his  native  taste  for  philosophical  thinking, 
and  initiated  him  early  into  the  terminology  and  dis- 
tinctions of  the  Kantian  school.  His  zeal  in  this 
direction  carried  him  so  far  that  he  reprinted  in  a 
cheap  and  portable  form  a  now  forgotten  exposition 
of  Kant  by  one  of  his  early  English  disciples.  His 
facility  in  apprehending  and  applying  the   Kantian 


23 

terminology    was   remarkable    in    the   view    of    his 
friends.     Dr.   Taylor's  ethics  and  theodicy   aroused 
his  energies  of  faith  and  dissent,  in  respect  to   the 
profoundest  questions  which   concern   the  responsi- 
bility of  man  and  the  government  of  God.     Had  he 
from  the  first  confined  his  studies  to  questions  of  phi- 
losophy and  mastered  its  refined  and  unmanageable 
literature,  he  would  have  entered  upon  his  work  with 
greater  advantage.     He  was,  however,  never  fond  of 
reading  for  its  own  sake,  especially  in  lines  which 
led  away  from  some  immediate  interest  of  thought 
or  action  ;  although  his  capacity  to  read  with  insight 
and  effect  was  always  quite  remarkable.     Notwith- 
standing this  capacity,  his  tastes  were  not  so   em- 
phatically the  tastes  of  a  learned  scholar,  as  of  a  practical 
thinker  and  student  of  men  and  affairs.     He  spent,  as 
we  have  seen,  the  first  twenty  years  of  his  professional 
life  in  pastoral  duty,  burdened  and  distracted  by  discus- 
sions and  criticisms,  many  of  which  were  of  no  specu- 
lative interest.     Moreover,  he  was  called  immediately 
to  a  variety  of  functions  in  the  service  of  the  college, 
which  had  no  relation  to  his  studies  and  duties  as  a 
learner  or  teacher  of  philosophy.     His  practical  un- 
derstanding, his  interest  in  and  his  mastery  of  college 
administration  soon  made  itself  manifest,  and  brought 
upon  him  manifold  responsibilities,  which  distracted 
his  attention   and  consumed  his  time.     His  facility 
in   writing  and   his  lively   interest   in    controversial 


24 

questions  and  ecclesiastical  movements,  compelled 
him  to  write  abundantly  for  the  press.  He  was  soon 
called  to  assume  the  responsibilities  of  joint,  and 
finally  of  sole,  editor  of  the  Princeton  Review,  which 
weighed  upon  him  for  ten  of  the  most  critical  years 
of  a  man's  life,  and  probably  did  more  to  shorten  his 
life  than  any  other  of  his  manifold  responsibilities.  He 
gave  himself  with  great  energy  to  his  appropriate 
studies  and  showed  distinguished  ability  in  appreciat- 
ing and  expounding  psychological  and  metaphysical 
truth,  and  was  always  recognized  by  his  pupils  as  a 
clear  and  strong  thinker  and  an  able  instructor.  His 
lectures  were  valued  as  stimulating  and  disciplinary 
in  the  highest  degree  and  will  long  be  remembered 
by  the  classes  which  enjoyed  his  instructions.  It  is 
believed  that  he  has  left  as  definite  an  impress  upon 
their  minds  and  characters  as  any  of  his  cotempora- 
ries.  His  "  Manual  of  Logic"  is  a  model  of  a  brief 
work  of  the  kind.  It  was  with  great  reluctance,  but 
with  a  noble  magnanimity  and  self-sacrifice  that  he 
relinquished  Psychology  for  Political  Economy  at  a 
somewhat  advanced  period  of  his  professional  life,  and 
thereby  assumed  new  burdens.  As  a  teacher  and  writer 
in  political  economy  he  felt  himself  entirely  at 
home.  His  tastes  and  habits  fitted  him  to  un- 
derstand affairs  political  and  financial,  and  whether 
he  conversed    or   wrote    upon  these  topics  he  was 


25 

completely  at  his  ease,  exhibiting  great  facility  and 
varied  power.  His  ability  and  success  were  ac- 
knowledged to  be  pre-eminent. 

In  college  administration  he  was  eminently  skill- 
ful and  trustworthy.  He  was  shrewd  and  far-sight- 
ed ;  cautious,  yet  decided ;  cool,  yet  positive. 
Above  all,  he  was  self-sacrificing  and  laborious 
whenever  time,  or  thought,  or  labor  was  needed  for 
the  right  determination  of  difficult  questions,  or  the 
execution  of  any  plan  which  involved  painstaking 
and  patience.  In  critical  times  of  college  discipline 
Dr.  At  water  was  a  tower  of  strength,  being  always 
in  his  pJace,  prompt,  cool,  and  clear-headed,  while  he 
was  bold  and  energetic  against  unreason  and  diso- 
bedience. His  generous  public  spirit  was  always 
manifest  in  times  of  trial  and  anxiety,  and  on  him 
were  laid  many  unpleasant  burdens  because  it  was 
known  that  he  would  never  refuse  to  meet  a  try- 
ing exigency. 

His  general  official  services  for  the  increase  of  the 
funds  of  the  college  in  the  times  of  its  pressing  need, 
before  the  days  of  its  distinguished  prosperity,  are 
well  known.  That  these  services  cost  him  patience, 
labor,  and  anxiety  for  two  or  three  continuous  years  is 
well  known  to  his  friends.  Their  immediate  fruits 
were  not  inconsiderable.  Their  importance  in  pre- 
paring for  the  splendid  ingathering  of  the  latter  har- 


26 

vest  are  fitted  to  encourage  all  who  are  called  to  a 
similar  faith  and  patience,  and  deserve  to  be  gratefully 
remembered  in  his  honor  by  all  the  sons  of  Prince- 
ton. 

I  can  not  be  mistaken  in  saying  that,  with  his  col- 
leagues and  the  classes  which  have  been  under 
his  care,  he  has  uniformly  left  the  impression  that 
they  had  to  do  with  an  upright,  single-hearted,  self- 
sacrificing  friend,  a  man  upon  whom  his  friends 
could  rely  in  times  of  stress  and  trial — a  solid  lover 
of  truth  and  goodness ;  reverent,  affectionate,  true- 
hearted,  useful,  charitable,  and  just. 

For  nearly  thirty  years  he  has  served  this  college 
with  singular  devotion  and  fidelity,  with  eminent  up- 
rightness, patience,  and  magnanimity,  and  he  dies  as 
one  of  its  oldest  officers.  It  is  fit  that  his  manifold 
public  services  should  be  commemorated  by  his  col- 
leagues. I  count  it  a  special  privilege  to  be  allowed  to 
give  my  testimony  to  the  genuine  worth  of  my 
friend  of  more  than  fifty  years,  to  his  warm-hearted 
generosity,  his  transparent  uprightness,  and  his  cordial 
affection  that  was  strong  in  life  and  in  death. 

As  a  Christian  believer  he  made  no  demonstrations 
of  zeal  or  devotion,  but  those  who  knew  him  best 
knew  most  certainly  that  he  walked  with  God  in 
undoubting  faith  and  loyal  uprightness,  that  he  loved 
the  church  with  devoted  and  passionate  zeal,  that  he 
served  his  college  with   upright  and  self-sacrificing 


27 

laboriousness,  and  cherished  his  family  with  sin- 
gular sweetness.  We  can  not  doubt  that  his  inherit- 
ance is  with  the  spirits  of  the  just  made  perfect. 

As  we  follow  him  in  our  thoughts,  we  can  imag- 
ine with  what  a  complete  yet  modest  satisfaction  he 
has  already  received  the  blessed  assurance,  "  Well 
done,  thou  good  and  faithful  servant :  enter  thou  into 
the  joy  of  thy  Lord,"  and  how  hearty  has  been  the 
greeting  which  he  may  have  already  extended  to  the 
many  blessed  souls  who  had  gone  before  him  into 
that  satisfying  joy. 


ADDRESS 


OP 


V^TV 


THE  REV.  JAMES'McCOSH,  D.D.,  LL.D., 

President  of  Princeton  College. 


ADDRESS. 


The  College  of  New  Jersey  is  this  day  in  mourn- 
inof.  It  has  suffered  as  Q;reat  a  loss  as  it  could 
suffer.  I  feel  that  I  am  called  on  to  speak  of  what 
Dr.  Atwater  has  done  in  the  College,  specially  as 
a  teacher. 

He  has  been  laboring  among  us  for  nearly  twenty- 
nine  years.  During  that  time  he  has  been  instruct- 
ing our  advanced  students  in  mental,  moral,  and 
political  science,  the  branches  most  fitted  to  call 
forth  thought,  to  train  the  mind  and  form  the  char- 
acter. In  logic,  ethics,  and  metaphysics  he  pro- 
ceeded in  his  teaching  on  the  fundamental  princi- 
ples which  God  has  planted  in  the  mind,  and  which 
guarantee  truth.  In  ethics  he  taught  an  eternal 
and  immutable  morality.  He  had  surveyed  and 
mastered  the  whole  wide  subject  of  social  science, 
and  was  regarded  on  all  hands  as  an  authority  in 
all  departments  of  political  science.  The  law  and 
the  love  of  God  ran  throuo-h  all  his  teachinors  and 
writings  and  gave  them  a  high  elevation. 

He  had  a  very  comprehensive  mind,  looking  on 
all   sides   of  a   question.      He   weighed   with    care 


32 

every  topic,  and  formed  a  just  estimate  of  it.  He 
had  eminently  a  judicial  mind,  and  if  he  had  gone 
to  the  bar  he  would  certainly  have  risen  to  a  high 
position.  He  occupied  in  my  opinion  a  still  higher 
sphere  in  training,  and  sending  forth  to  high  and 
useful  occupations  such  a  body  of  young  men. 

He  has  had,  I  should  suppose,  so  many  as  be- 
tween two  and  three  thousand — say  two  thousand 
five  hundred  pupils  who  have  been  instructed  by 
him.  All  of  them  speak  of  him  with  profound  rev- 
erence, many  of  them  with  deep  gratitude  for  the 
good  they  have  received.  His  memory  will  be 
cherished,  and  his  influence  for  good  will  be  felt 
wherever  his  pupils  have  gone  and  as  long  as  any 
of  them  survive. 

For  nearly  a  third  of  a  century  he  has  been 
identified  with  all  that  is  good  in  this  institution. 
He  lived  and  labored  for  the  eood  of  the  Colleee. 
He  has  had  as  much  influence  as  any  one  man, 
perhaps  more  than  any  other,  in  forming  the  char- 
acter of  its  numerous  alumni,  scattered  all  over  the 
country,  and  fitting  them  for  usefulness  in  various 
walks  of  life. 

We  valued  him  as  a  teacher.  But  we  also  re- 
vered and  loved  him  as  a  man.  Every  one  who 
knew  him  will  be  prepared  to  testify  that  he  was 
actuated  throughout  by  high  principle,  moral  and 
religious.     This  gave  a  consistency  to  his  character 


33 

which  made  every  one  respect  him.  He  labored 
to  keep  up  a  high  standard  of  moraHty  and  piety 
anion  Of  us.  But  he  was  far  from  beingf  a  man  of 
mere  head  without  heart.  Underneath  his  sedate 
demeanor  there  was  a  deep  well  of  feeling  ever 
ready  to  burst  out.  He  was  firm  in  rebuking  the 
erring,  but  was  ever  melted  when  he  discovered 
signs  of  repentance.  He  was  charged  with  the 
benevolent  funds  of  this  institution  and  administered 
the  trust  with  great  faithfulness  and  kindness. 
Many  students  will  remember  forever  the  wise 
counsels  which  he  eave  them. 

His  work  and  mine  have  been  constantly  and 
closely  intermingled.  Of  all  the  instructors  here  I 
shall  feel  his  removal  most  keenly.  I  do  not  know 
where  we  can  get  a  man  to  take  up  the  profound 
and  varied  subjects  which  he  taught.  It  is  due  to 
the  memory  of  one  who  upheld  philosophy  in 
Princeton  College,  not  to  let  it  down  from  the  high 
place  which  it  has  all  along  occupied  here.  The 
fittest  tribute  which  we  can  pay  to  his  memory  is 
to  secure  that  the  work  which  he  has  carried  on  so 
effectively  will  be  continued  in  the  ages  to  follow. 


ADDRESS 


THE  REV.  ARCHIBALD  ALEXANDER  HODGE,  D.D., 

Professor  in  the  Princeton   Theological  Scmina?-y. 


ADDRESS. 


As  has  been  already  said,  the  grand  distinctions  of 
Dr.  Atwater  were  the  judicial  character  of  his  judg- 
ment, the  weight  of  his  personal  influence,  and  the 
many-sidedness  of  his  intelligence  and  of  his  actu- 
ally achieved  results.  His  force  lay  not  in  the 
amount  of  his  acquisitions  nor  in  the  adventitious 
conditions  of  his  reputation,  or  of  his  position,  but 
rather  in  the  robust  and  wise  and  effective  manhood 
into  which  he  had  developed.  The  gentlemen  who 
have  preceded  me  have  spoken  of  him  as  a  product 
of  New  England  manhood,  religion,  and  culture,  of 
his  eminence  in  metaphysical  and  ethical  philosophy, 
and  as  an  original  thinker  in  the  departments  of 
political  and  financial  science,  and  of  his  great  serv- 
ices as  a  teacher  and  counsellor  in  the  College  of 
New  Jersey  for  almost  the  third  of  a  century.  I 
stand  here,  however,  as  the  representative  of  the 
citizens  of  Princeton,  of  her  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
societies,  of  the  theological  seminary,  to  give  ex- 
pression here  to  our  sense  of  his  eminent  services  in 
all  these  relations. 

In   each   of  these  spheres   Dr.  Atwater  was  fully 


3^ 

and  consistently  himself,  the  strong,  weighty,  wise, 
and  godly  man ;  the  centre  around  which  multitudes 
of  lesser  men  revolved  ;  the  tie  by  which  many  im- 
perfectly accordant  personalities  and  interests  were 
bound  together ;  the  counsellor  and  judge  in  whose 
final  decision  the  rest  of  us  were  easily  persuaded  to 
acquiesce.  Coming  to  this  village  before  the  College 
had  become  as  large  and  as  independent  a  commu- 
nity as  it  is  at  present,  he  at  once  identified  himself 
with  our  citizens  in  all  their  interests,  and  especially 
with  the  fellowship  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church. 
For  a  generation  he  has  gone  in  and  out  among  us 
as  one  of  the  princes  of  our  people,  always  trusted 
and  always  proving  himself  worthy  of  the  confi- 
dence universally  reposed  in  his  wisdom  and  fidelity. 
He  was  always  the  most  influential  man  at  our  con- 
gregational meetings  for  the  administration  of  paro- 
chial business,  and  an  important  member  of  all 
deliberative  and  executive  committees.  He  was  ever 
a  faithful  friend  and  a  wise  counsellor  of  his  pastors, 
and  an  efficient  aid  in  all  situations  in  which  his  co- 
operation was  possible.  As  far  as  his  constantly 
multiplying  engagefnents  and  his  failing  health  per- 
mitted he  was  an  habitual  attendant  upon  the  de- 
votional meetings  of  the  church,  and  on  all  occasions 
in  which  he  took  a  public  part  he  was  eminently 
edifying  and  instructive  to  his  fellow-worshippers. 
His  Christian  character  was,  as  it  should  be,  the 


39 

crown  and  ornament  of  his  entire  life.  It  of  course 
partook  of  the  general  attributes  of  his  nature.  It 
was  intelligent,  broad  and  judicial,  but  none  the  less 
fervent,  and  it  controlled  the  whole  sum  of  forces  of 
his  nature,  and  stamped  itself  upon  the  community 
which  enjoyed  his  fellowship. 

On  the  first  day  of  last  October  my  farewell  sight 
of  him  was  coincident  with  his  latest  attendance 
upon  any  place  of  public  worship.  I  became  sud- 
denly and  vividly  conscious  of  his  presence,  standing 
out  beyond  that  of  the  general  audience  as  I  ad- 
dressed the  communicants  of  this  church.  His  erect 
forward  attitude  of  interest,  and  his  shining  face 
kindled  the  speaker's  emotions,  and  left  his  picture, 
under  a  transfiguring  light,  impressed  upon  his 
memory  forever.  He  parted  from  us  his  fellow- 
worshippers  at  the  Table  of  the  Lord,  with  his 
face  glowing  with  the  affections  of  Christian  faith 
and  brotherhood,  and  reflecting  the  light  of  that 
heavenly  temple  into  whose  bright  and  joyous 
services  he  has  entered  before  us.  It  was  a  fit 
closing  of  his  public  life  among  us. 

With  the  Theological  Seminary  of  the  Presbyte- 
rian Church  in  this  place  Dr.  Atwater  sustained  a 
more  intimate  and  vital  relation  than  any  other  offi- 
cer of  this  College  or  any  individual  whatever  not  a 
member  of  the  Seminary  faculty  itself,  in  the  entire 
history  of  that  institution  for  seventy   years.     For 


40 

Dr.  Atwater  was  probably  even  more  eminent  as  a 
theologian  and  as  a  theoretical  ecclesiastic  than  he 
was  in  any  other  of  the  many  departments  in  which 
he  acquired  an  honorable  reputation.  He  was  un- 
questionably more  intimately  and  accurately  versed 
in  all  the  varieties  and  the  entire  history  of  what  is 
known  as  New  England  theology,  than  any  other 
member  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  He  was  cer- 
tainly, together  with  the  late  Dr.  Charles  Hodge,  the 
most  able  as  well  as  the  most  voluminous  theological 
reviewer  and  controversialist  of  the  Old  School  branch 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  during  the  last  quarter 
of  a  century.  In  1863  he  was  elected  by  a  very  large 
majority  vote  of  the  General  Assembly  professor 
of  systematic  theology  in  the  Western  Theological 
Seminary,  Allegheny  City,  Pennsylvania  But  he 
has  been  always  known  in  theological  circles  and 
questions  as  a  Princeton  man,  and  as  one  of  the 
most  powerful  defenders  of  that  faith  in  his  genera- 
tion. His  intimate  friendship  and  effective  co- 
operation with  the  late  Dr.  Charles  Hodge  for  so 
many  years  is  one  of  the  signal  facts  in  the  history 
of  both  of  them.  Dr.  Atwater  became  a  citizen  of 
Princeton  and  a  professor  in  this  College  in  1854. 
But  his  intimacy  and  co-operation  with  Dr.  Hodge 
began  fourteen  years  before  that,  with  his  first  con- 
tribution to  the  Biblical  Repertory  and  Princeton 
Review,    on   the  "  Power  of   Contrary  Choice,"  in 


41 

1840.  Since  which  time  he  was  a  constant  con- 
tributor, then  the  most  intimate  counsellor,  then 
junior  editor,  and  then  editor-in-chief.  The  fact  is  that 
Dr.  Atwater  was  given  to  the  College  by  the  Semi- 
nary, being  first  attracted  and  then  for  many  years 
held  in  the  Princeton  circle  by  theological  sympathies. 
Dr.  Hodge,  of  course,  formed  the  most  intimate, 
confidential,  and  tender  of  his  personal  friendships 
in  an  earlier  period  of  his  life.  But  from  the  time 
of  Dr.  Atwater's  permanent  residence  in  Princeton 
for  twenty-four  years  Dr.  Hodge  was  more  depend- 
ent upon  him  for  intellectual  sympathy  and  for 
counsel  than  upon  any  other  man  then  living.  This 
intimacy  led  to  constant  interviews  and  consultations 
in  the  study  of  the  older  man,  in  which  all  the 
theological  questions  of  the  day,  and  all  the  public 
interests  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  at  large,  and  of 
the  institutions  of  Princeton  were  discussed,  and  the 
methods  and  policy  of  their  defence  or  advocacy 
planned  and  decided.  My  father  continually  ex- 
pressed to  his  most  intimate  friends  his  great  satis- 
faction in  Dr.  Atwater's  intellectual  fellowship  and 
sympathy,  and  his  admiration  for  his  judgment. 
Thus  they  more  and  more  worked  together  hand  to 
hand  as  long  as  the  strength  of  the  elder  friend 
lasted.  He  then  handed  over  the  sole  command  of 
the  old  flagship  to  his  younger  colleague,  as  his  ablest 
and  most  like-minded  successor. 


42 

His  articles  in  the  Princeton  Review  are  greater 
in  number  tlian  those  of  any  other  contributor 
except  Drs.  James  W.  and  Joseph  Addison  Alexan- 
der and  Dr.  Charles  Hodge.  They  range  over  a 
greater  variety  of  subjects  than  any  one  of  these, 
including  doctrine  and  apologetics,  criticism,  biog- 
raphy, history,  education,  metaphysics,  ethics,  poli- 
tics, political  economy,  and  finance.  In  all  of  these 
he  wrote  out  of  the  fulness  of  knowledge  and  with 
great  clearness  and  force. 

Dr.  Atwater  delivered  with  great  acceptance 
several  successive  courses  of  lectures  to  the  students 
of  the  Theological  Seminary  on  questions  connected 
with  mental  and  moral  science  about  the  years  1858 
to  1863.  He  was  a  member  of  the  board  of  trustees 
from  i860  to  his  death,  and  from  1876  vice-president 
of  that  board  and  chairman  of  the  committee  on 
grounds  and  buildings.  These  functions  he  dis- 
charged with  unparalleled  fidelity,  ability,  and  judg- 
ment. No  bill  was  paid,  nor  expense  incurred,  nor 
claim  for  salary  or  wages  satisfied  except  upon  a 
warrant  signed  by  his  hand.  And  in  all  matters  of 
greater  moment,  as  in  the  founding  of  chairs,  the 
arrangement  of  the  curriculum,  or  the  election  of 
professors,  the  directors  were  always  glad  to  avail 
themselves  of  his  advice. 

In  one  estimate  we  can  all  agree.  In  this  testi- 
mony the  College,  the  village,  the  Church,  the  Theo- 


43 

logical  Seminary,  all  unite,  we  have  all  lost  the  one 
man  whom  we  each  could  least  afford  to  spare. 
God  in  His  wise  benevolence  will  doubtless  over- 
rule even  this  for  good.  But  we  have  little  hope 
that  He  will  ever  again  give  us  a  man  endowed 
with  the  same  qualities,  and  adjusted  to  the  same  in- 
tricate and  delicate  relations,  broad  enough,  wise 
enough,  strong  enough,  well-balanced  enough  to  fill 
the  large  void  made  by  the  death  of  Dr.  Lyman  H. 
Atwater. 


DISCOURSE 


THE  REV.  WILLIAM  M.  TAYLOR,  D.D.,  LL.D., 

Pastor  of  the  Broadway  Tabernacle,  New  York  City. 


MEMORIAL    DISCOURSE. 


"  He  was  a  good  man,  and  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  of  faith." 
— Acts  xi.  24. 

This  is  a  remarkable  eulogy.  It  was  written  by- 
Luke  at  the  close  of  the  second  year  of  Paul's  first 
imprisonment,  and  therefore  in  the  full  knowledge 
of  all  the  facts  connected  with  the  breach  between 
the  great  Apostle  and  Barnabas,  which  ended  in 
their  departing  "  asunder  one  from  another,"  and 
of  which  the  account  comes  in  at  a  later  part  of  his 
narrative.  For  years  the  Evangelist  had  been  the 
constant  companion  and  intimate  friend  of  the 
Apostle,  and,  as  such,  we  may  suppose  that  he  had 
received  all  the  details  of  the  unhappy  controversy 
from  his  lips ;  yet  in  spite  of  all  that  had  come  and 
gone  between  them,  he  takes  this  early  and  inci- 
dental opportunity,  which  the  mention  of  his  first 
visit  to  Antioch  affords,  to  put  on  record  his  de- 
liberate estimate  of  his  character  and  worth.  Here 
and  there,  too,  in  the  epistles  of  Paul,  there  are 
casual  allusions,  which  show  that  in  the  verdict  here 
pronounced  he  fully  concurred  ;  so  that  its  presence 
in   this  place  is  alike  honorable  to   all  three  —  to 


48 

Barnabas  as  thoroughly  deserving  this  noble  trib- 
ute ;  to  Paul  as  showing  that  the  controversy  over 
Mark  had  left  no  permanent  estrangement  in  his 
heart ;  and  to  Luke  as  proving  the  judicial  imparti- 
ality with  which  he  wrote  his  history. 

But,  striking  as  this  testimony  to  Barnabas  is,  when 
we  regard  the  circumstances  in  which  it  was  given,  it  is 
no  less  noteworthy  in  itself  considered  ;  for  its  sole 
emphasis  is  laid  on  moral  and  spiritual  qualities.  The 
greatness  of  this  early  disciple  was  in  his  goodness ; 
that  goodness,  again,  was  rooted  in  his  faith,  and 
the  whole  was  vitalized  by  the  indwelling  Spirit, 
whose  influence  pervaded  the  life,  and  gave  it  that 
amiability  and  attractiveness  by  which  it  was  dis- 
tinguished. Barnabas  was  not  deficient  in  intel- 
lectual ability,  neither  was  he  destitute  of  mental 
independence  or  moral  energy  ;  but  the  totality  of 
the  man — that  by  which  he  was  best  known  and  for 
which  he  was  most  fondly  remembered — was  his 
goodness.  He  was  loved  even  more  that  he  was 
admired ;  and  even  those  who  had  seriously  differed 
from  him  were  constrained  to  speak  of  him  with 
tenderest  affection. 

You  will  not  wonder,  therefore,  that  in  seeking 
an  appropriate  text  for  the  memorial  discourse 
which  this  evening,  at  the  request  of  the  Faculty 
of  this  College,  I  am  come  to  deliver,  I  have  been 
led  to   select  that  which    I    have  just  announced. 


49 

For  though  intellectually  and  theologically  Dr.  At- 
water  had  much  that  resembled  Paul  rather  than 
Barnabas ;  though  he  was  one  of  the  most  versatile 
and  many-sided  men  whom  I  have  ever  known  ;  all 
his  other  characteristics  were  fused  into  a  unit  by 
his  pre-eminent  goodness  ;  and  that,  in  its  turn, 
was  permeated  by  his  Christian  faith.  No  one 
could  know  him  without  loving  him,  and  perceiv- 
ing that  he  loved  the  Lord ;  so  that,  though  in  his 
time  he  had  taken  part  in  earnest  controversies,  and 
had  been  in  many  conflicts,  when  he  passed  away 
from  us  the  universal  ejaculatiom  from  former  an- 
tagonists and  former  allies  alike  was  this — "  He  was 
a  good  man." 

I  could  have  wished  that  the  duty  which  has  been 
assigned  to  me  had  been  committed  to  some  one 
who  had  known  him  longer,  and  could  speak  from 
personal  participation  in  the  movements  with  which 
he  was  identified ;  but  when  the  work  was  laid  on 
me,  I  could  not  refuse  to  place  a  wreath  upon  the 
grave  of  one  whose  friendship  I  counted  one  of  my 
highest  honors ;  and  though  the  wreath  be  made 
of  material  as  simple  as  the  heather  of  my  native 
hills,  it  will  at  least  attest  the  sincerity  of  my  affec- 
tion for  him  who  was  so  greatly  beloved  by  us  all. 

Lyman  Hotchkiss  Atwater  was  born  at  Cedar 
Hill,  now  a  part  of  New  Haven,  Conn.,  February 


50 

23,  1813.  He  was  descended  from  one  of  the  first 
settlers  of  the  colony,  and  his  parents  had  all  the 
characteristics  of  the  Puritan  stock  to  which  they 
belonged.  He  has  himself  described  the  formative 
influences  under  which  his  early  days  were  spent 
in  the  following  sentences,  which  we  take  from  his 
noble  article  on  Horace  Bushnell :  *  "  We  recall  the 
Puritanical,  almost  Jewish  Sabbath  observance  ; 
church -going  through  wintry  blasts  into  the  un- 
warmed  'meeting-house,'  to  hear  theology  reasoned 
out  throuo^h  two  sermons  ;  the  drill  in  the  Shorter 
Catechism  ;  the  common  school  with  its  rough 
oaken  seats  and  sometimes  rougher  teachers  ;  the 
toilsome  industry  which  extorted  a  frugal  subsist- 
ence from  rocky  soils,  or  by  the  slow  process  of 
handiwork  in  producing  what  steam  and  electricity 
and  machinery  will  now  yield  in  vastly  greater  pro- 
fusion and  superior  quality  to  a  tithe  of  the  labor. 
We  now  seem  to  hear  the  rattle  of  the  household 
spinning-wheel  to  produce  the  thread  or  yarn,  for 
the  very  weaving  of  which  was  paid  double  what 
the  same  amount  of  cloth  already  finished,  and  bet- 
ter fitted  for  the  same  use,  would  now  cost.  It  is 
scarcely  possible  for  those  whose  lives  do  not  run 
back  of  the  half  century  now  closing  to  conceive  of 
the  severe  style  of  life  and  manners  then  prevalent 


*  T/ie  Presbyterian  Review,  vol.  ii.,  p.  115. 


51 

from  dire  necessity."  A  rough  nurture  that  "Age 
of  Homespun  "  gave  to  those  who  were  born  into 
it ;  but  it  made  them  men,  and  hardened  them  into 
sturdy  mental  independence  as  well  as  into  physical 
vigor. 

After  his  first  course  of  education  at  the  pub- 
lic school,  he  was  prepared  for  college  by  Dr. 
H.  P.  Arms,  afterward  pastor  of  the  Congrega- 
tional church  in  Norwich,  Conn.  ;  and  at  the  age 
of  14  he  entered  the  Freshman  class  at  Yale  in 
1827.  He  was  a  distinguished  student,  and  at  his 
graduation  in  1831  he  received  the  second  honor  of 
his  class  ;  but  during  the  last  year  of  his  course  a 
richer  blessing  came  to  him  than  any  such  literary 
eminence,  excellent  as  in  its  own  place  that  is, 
could  confer;  for  in  the  spring  of  1831  a  deep, 
earnest,  and  powerful,  though  quiet  "  revival "  per- 
vaded the  College,  and  left  its  deposit  of  lasting 
and  germinant  influence  in  his  heart  and  life.  "  We, 
too,"  he  says,  while  alluding  to  the  quickening 
which  Bushnell  received  on  that  memorable  occa- 
sion, "  participated  in  the  same  great  awakening,  in 
which  the  '  still  small  voice '  of  the  Spirit  was  so 
mighty,  that  for  days  the  usual  din  of  conversation 
at  meals  in  the  great  dining-hall  was  hushed  into  very 
whispers."*    He  had  been  trained,  as  we  have  seen, 


*  The  Presbyterian  Review,  vol.  ii.,  p.  Ii6. 


52 

in  a  Christian  home,  and  now  the  new  life  within 
him,  Hfted  up  into  itself,  and  made  its  own  all  that 
was  best  in  his  previous  experience,  thereby  giving 
a  moral  and  spiritual  unity  to  his  character,  so  that 
thenceforward  the  Christian  in  him  was  conspicu- 
ous, not  by  ostentatious  display,  but  by  pervasive 
power. 

After  a  year  spent  near  Baltimore  in  teaching  the 
classics  at  Mount  Hope  Seminary,  he  returned  to 
New  Haven,  and  in  the  fall  of  1832  he  entered  on 
the  study  of  theology  at  the  Yale  Divinity  School. 
In  1833  he  was  appointed  a  tutor  in  the  College, 
but  he  continued  his  theological  studies  side  by  side 
with  his  work  as  an  instructor,  and  these  years 
probably  did  more  than  any  others  in  his  opening 
manhood  to  shape  the  course  of  his  subsequent 
career.  Already,  in  his  undergraduate  life,  he  had 
become  noted,  along  with  his  friend  Noah  Porter, 
now  the  honored  President  of  Yale,  for  his  devo- 
tion to  intellectual  philosophy  ;  and  when  he  re- 
turned from  Baltimore  to  begin  the  study  of  theol- 
ogy, his  former  discussions  with  fellow-students  on 
metaphysical  subjects  were  resumed  with  all  the 
ardor  and  enthusiasm  of  youth.  A  company  of 
four  are  especially  named  by  him^^  as  having  been 
"  most  addicted  to  philosophical  study,  and  wont  to 


"Memorial  Discourse  on  Elisha  Lord  Cleaveland,"  p.  29. 


53 

probe  questions  to  the  bottom  by  original  investi- 
gations beyond  the  deHverances  of  the  lecture- 
room."  They  occupied  adjoining  apartments  in 
the  upper  story  of  a  house,  which,  because  of  their 
continual  debates,  was  known  among  their  fellow- 
students  by  the  sobi'iquet  of  the  "  Philosophical 
Garret."  One  of  the  four  was  Dr.  Cleaveland,  after- 
ward pastor  of  a  church  in  New  Haven  ;  another 
became  a  missionary  to  Turkey  and  afterward 
librarian  of  the  New  York  State  Library  at  Alba- 
ny ;  the  third  was  Dr.  Atwater  himself  ;  and  the 
fourth  was  that  life-long  friend  whose  voice  was  so 
fitly  heard  in  loving  eulogy  over  the  bier  of  his 
early  companion.  I  mention  all  this  here  because 
it  is  full  of  suggestiveness,  especially  to  students, 
as  serving  to  remind  them  that  the  training  which 
they  give  to  each  other  in  intellectual  athletics,  is 
often  of  almost  as  great  importance  as  that  which 
they  receive  directly  from  the  professors  in  the 
class-rooms. 

At  this  time,  too,  it  was,  that  Dr.  Atwater  came 
under  the  influence  of  Coleridge.  The  "Aids  to 
Reflection,"  published  in  England  some  seven  or 
eight  years  before  (in  1825),  had  found  its  way  into 
the  hands  of  these  young  men,  and  greatly  stirred 
their  minds.  It  is  interesting,  at  this  distance,  to 
trace  the  diff"erent  directions  in  which  the  quicken- 
ing force  of  the  poet-philosopher  has  carried  those 


54 

who  came  under  its  operation.  Some,  like  Carlyle, 
having  reached  the  stage  of  Titanic  defiance  describ- 
ed in  his  chapter  on  "  The  Everlasting  No,"  before 
they  came  into  contact  with  the  Highgate  sage, 
ridiculed  his  utterances  as  "  moonshine."  Others 
were  sent  by  them  into  ritualism ;  and  more 
perhaps  were  carried  by  them  into  Broad  Church- 
ism  ;  while  there  were  not  a  few  who,  like  his 
American  editor.  Dr.  Shedd,  and  our  friend  Dr.  At- 
water,  were  stiffened  by  their  contact  \\ith  him,  into 
a  more  stalwart  orthodoxy.  The  reason  of  all  this 
may,  perhaps,  be  found  in  the  fragmentary  and  dis- 
jointed character  of  his  writings.  It  is  questionable 
if  he  had  ever  reached  a  system  in  his  own  mind  ; 
but  whether  he  had  or  not,  he  has  nowhere  given 
systematic  completeness  to  his  teachings.  His 
philosophy,  as  Dr.  Shedd  has  said,  "  must  be  gather- 
ed from  his  writings  rather  than  quoted  from 
them.""*  Those  who  have  not  had  the  patience  to 
make  such  an  induction,  have  simply  carried  away 
from  him  the  general  stimulus  which  his  thinking 
gave  them,  and  the  special  suggestions  which  fitted 
into  their  own  tastes  and  idiosyncrasies  ;  while 
others  who  have  been  awakened  by  him  into  inde- 
pendent research  have  shaken  themselves  clear  of 
his  mysticism,  and  have  been  grateful   ever  after- 


*  The  complete  works  of  Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge,  vol.  i.,  p.  lo. 


55 

ward  for  the  quickening  and  impulse  they  have  re- 
ceived at  his  hands.  Among  these  last  was  Dr.  At- 
water.  As  he  has  said  of  Dr.  Cleaveland,  so  we 
may  say  of  himself,  that  "he  was  one  of  those  who 
profited  by  Coleridge's  writings,  because  he  knew 
how  to  separate  the  chaff  from  the  wheat,  master- 
ing, instead  of  being  mastered  by  them."*  Indeed 
that  is  substantially  what  he  has  said  for  himself  in 
his  own  excellent  article  on  Coleridgfe,  for  after  re- 
ferring  to  the  imperfect  development  of  that  author's 
ideas,  he  goes  on  to  say  that  by  that  very  thing 
"  the  reader  w^ould  be  excited  to  thought  and  study, 
and  every  sort  of  tentative  effort,  to  track  out  the 
germinant  thought  to  its  full  proportions,  and  realize 
all  the  hidden  treasures  it  embosomed.  It  shot  into 
his  mind  the  dawn  of  a  new  idea  ;  he  can  not  rest 
till  he  has  clarified  that  twilight  apprehension  or 
imagining  into  meridian  clearness.  Now  this  oper- 
ates at  once  as  the  effective  stimulus  and  discipline 
of  the  intellect ;  and  provided  only  that  it  does  not 
lead  to  a  servile  adoption  of  the  author's  tenets,  its 
influence  is  every  way  salubrious  and  invigorating, 
and  a  vastly  higher  benefit  is  gained  by  studying 
such  a  writer  than  one  who  does  not  awaken  such 
mental  strivings  to  work  out  for  ourselves  the  prob- 
lem that  he  has  rather  susrsrested  than  solved.    And 


*  Memorial  of  Rev.  E.  L.  Cleaveland,  p.  30. 


56 

those  who  have,  especially  in  youth  or  opening  man- 
hood, received  such  a  lofty  impulse  and  incalculable 
benefit  from  any  author,  will  not  soon  forget  their 
obligations  to  him  whatever  they  may  think  of  his 
specific  or  pecuhar  doctrines."*  We  can  not  but 
feel  that  all  this  is  autobiographical,  and  that  we 
have  here  described  the  history  of  his  own  relation 
to  the  works  of  Coleridge.  For  one  benefit  he  is 
repeatedly  grateful  to  the  English  philosopher.  In 
the  course  of  his  numerous  writings  he  has  quoted 
oftener  than  once  the  following  sentences  from  the 
"Aids  to  Reflection"  :  "  Often  have  I  heard  it  said 
by  the  advocates  for  the  Socinian  scheme — True 
we  are  all  sinners  ;  but  even  in  the  Old  Testament 
God  has  promised  forgiveness  on  repentance.  One 
of  the  fathers  (I  forget  which)  supplies  the  retort : 
True  !  God  has  promised  pardon  on  penitence  ;  but 
has  He  promised  penitence  on  sin  ?  He  that  re- 
penteth  shall  be  forgiven  ;  but  where  is  it  said,  he 
that  sinneth  shall  repent  ?  But  repentance,  perhaps, 
the  repentance  required  in  Scripture,  the  passing 
into  a  new  mind,  into  a  new  and  contrary  principle 
of  action,  this  Metanoia,  is  in  the  sinner's  own 
power?  at  his  own  liking  ?  He  has  but  to  open  his 
eyes  to  the  sin,  and  the  tears  are  at  hand  to  wash  it 
away  !  Verily  the  exploded  tenet  of  transubstantia- 

*T/ie  Princeton  Reviexu,  April,  1848,  pp.  163,  164. 


57 

Hon  is  scarcely  at  greater  variance  with  the  com- 
mon sense  and  experience  of  mankind,  or  borders 
more  closely  on  a  contradiction  in  terms,  than  this 
volunteer  trans77tentation,  this  self-change  as  the  easy 
means  of  self-salvation."  These  sentences,  as  I  have 
said,  I  have  found  quoted  at  least  twice  in  his  arti- 
cles, and  on  each  occasion  with  appended  remarks 
which  have  in  them  the  ring  of  a  personal  experi- 
ence ;  for  on  the  first  he  speaks  of  the  passage  as 
one  "  which  soon  after  its  publication  met  the  eye 
of  a  theological  student  who  had  begun  to  be  capti- 
vated by  the  Pelagian  speculations  of  the  day,  and 
started  a  most  beneficial  revolution  in  all  his  views 
of  theology";*  and  on  the  second  he  says,  "This 
has  flashed  a  flood  of  light  on  more  than  one  soul 
bewildered  in  its  struggles  to  realize  in  himself  the 
theory  that  he  was  able  to  make  himself  a  Christian, 
while  it  has  proved  a  turning  and  guide-board  for 
his  whole  after  career. "f  When  to  these  statements 
I  add  that  he  said  to  one  of  his  students  only 
eighteen  months  before  his  death,  that  he  could  not 
exaggerate  the  influence  of  the  "  Aids  to  Reflec- 
tion "  on  his  mind,  and  that  though  far  from  being 
a  Coleridgean  he  regarded  his  perusal  of  that  book 
as  an  epoch  in  his  life  :  I  am  surely  warranted  in 
drawing  special  attention  to  that  which  on  his  own 


*   The  Princeton  Review,  April,  1848,  pp.  181,  182. 
+   The  Presbyterian  Review,  vol.  ii.,  p.  124. 


58 

testimony  so  materially  influenced  Dr.  Atwater's 
history. 

At  the  time  to  which  we  are  referring,  the  Rev. 
Dr.  N.  W.  Taylor  was  stirring  the  thought  of  New 
England  by  his  eloquent  and  vigorous  advocacy 
of  that  system  which  came  to  be  known  as  the  New 
Haven  Theology  ;  but  though  drawn  most  affection- 
ately to  Dr.  Taylor  as  the  pastor  of  his  boyhood, 
Dr.  Atwater  could  not  receive  his  teacher's  theorv, 
that  all  moral  goodness  is  reducible  to  some  form  of 
self-love,  or  means  of  happiness  to  the  agent ;  and  in 
many  other  details  of  his  system,  of  more  or  less 
importance,  which  need  not  here  be  named,  he  was 
stimulated  to  antagonism  by  the  very  ability  of  his 
master.  Hence,  he  probably  derived  more  quicken- 
ing from  Dr.  Taylor's  course  of  lectures,  than  he 
would  have  done  if  he  had  implicitly  received  their 
doctrines,  and  for  the  rejection  of  one  of  these,  the 
determining  impulse,  as  we  have  seen,  was  given  him 
by  Coleridge.  In  any  case,  at  the  end  of  his  theo- 
logical course,  he  emerged  a  thorough  Calvinist,  of 
the  Old-School  type,  and  on  that  line  he  travelled 
till  the  close  of  life. 

In  May,  1834,  Mr.  Atwater  was  licensed  to 
preach  the  Gospel  by  the  New  Haven  West  Asso- 
ciation, and  on  the  29th  July,  1835,  he  was  ordained 
and  installed  pastor  of  the  First  Congregational 
Church  of  Fairfield,   Connecticut,  which  is  one  of 


59 

the  oldest  churches  in  that  State,  and  which  had  en- 
joyed for  many  years  the  ministrations  of  a  series 
of  distinguished  men.  Here  he  labored  for  nine- 
teen years  with  great  ability  and  acceptance,  and 
hither  in  October,  1835,  he  led  home  the  wife  of  his 
affection,  who  cheered  his  domestic  life  with  her 
genial  companionship  until  the  day  when,  after 
years  of  weakness  which  he  brightened  by  the  most 
tender  care,  she  was  taken  from  his  side  into  the 
heavenly  mansion. 

Only  two  things  connected  with  his  pastorate 
need  to  be  particularly  mentioned  here,  as  serving 
to  show  the  sort  of  man  he  was.  The  first  was 
the  part  which  he  took  in  the  controversy  which 
arose  over  the  theological  teachings  of  the  late  Dr. 
Horace  Bushnell,  as  these  had  been  embodied  in  his 
work  entitled  "  God  in  Christ."  The  whole  dis- 
cussion has  now  become  a  matter  of  history,  the 
record  of  which  may  be  found  on  the  one  side  in 
the  recently  issued  life  of  Bushnell  by  his  daughter, 
and  on  the  other  in  Dr.  Atwater's  article  in  the  Prince- 
ton Review  for  October,  1853  I  ^^^  latterly  in  the 
splendid  dissertation  on  Dr.  Bushnell,  which  he  con- 
tributed to  the  Presbyterian  Reviezv  for  January, 
1 88 1,  and  which  reveals  the  finest  qualities  both  of 
his  head  and  of  his  heart.  It  is  unnecessary,  here,  to 
specify  the  subjects  concerning  which  the  conflict 
was  waged  ;  enough  to  say  that  they  were  questions 


6o 

of  the  highest  importance,  and  that  Dr.  Atvvater 
bore  himself  all  through  like  one  who  neither  de- 
sired controversy  nor  feared  it.  On  each  side  were 
ranged  men  of  the  highest  ability  and  the  noblest 
character  ;  under  leaders  concerning  both  of  whom 
Dr.  Atwater  has  said  that  they  were  even  "  finest 
types  of  the  clergy  "*  of  their  time  ;  and  the  spirit 
by  which  he  was  animated  throughout  may  be  gath- 
ered from  these  sentences:  "With  untold  reluc- 
tance, labor,  anxiety,  cost  of  so  much  that  was  dear, 
they  went  forward  to  the  end.  They  discharged 
their  consciences — with  what  effect  it  is  given  us  to 
know  only  in  part.  The  leaders  on  the  other  side 
of  this  conflict  consisted  largely  of  those  endeared 
to  me,  at  least,  by  life-long  ties,  tenderest  of  all  out- 
side of  my  own  household.  I  can  see  how,  looking 
more  at  Dr.  Bushnell  on  sides  which  satisfy  and  de- 
light than  on  those  which  appall  and  confound, 
than  did  others,  they  should  have  advocated  a  course 
so  different  from  that  which  seemed  to  very  many 
imperative.  I  hope  and  pray  that  the  policy  which, 
then  inaugurated,  has  gained  increasing  headway 
since,  of  preventing  the  trial  of  ministers  who 
furnish  strong  prima  facie  ground  for  trial,  will  not 
issue  in  the  evils  to  the  old  loved  churches  of  my 
nativity  and  nurture  w^hich  have  been  so  much  pre- 


*  Presbyterian  Review,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  138,  139,  note. 


6i 

dieted."*  And  there  is  something  inexpressibly 
touching  in  the  mellow  sweetness  of  his  final  refer- 
ence to  him  who  had  been  the  occasion  of  the  con- 
troversy, when,  after  mentioning  one  defect  in  Dr. 
Bushnell's  character,  he  adds  : 

"  It  is  a  pleasing  compensation  for  this,  that  it 
was  so  free  from  '  envy,  malice,  and  uncharitable- 
ness '  toward  men  ;  so  filled,  despite  all  unhappy 
speculations,  with  all  the  fulness  of  God  in  Christ. 
Few  have  so  much  of  that  creative  imagination 
which  makes  it  'a  vision  and  faculty  divine.'  He 
was  more  of  a  seer  than  a  constructive  reasoner. 
Doubtless  any  obliquities  or  shadows  that  marred 
his  beholdings  here  are  now  cleared  away  in  the  im- 
mediate vision  of  God  and  of  the  Lamb."f  Thus 
the  debates  of  controversy,  though  firmly  carried 
on  by  Dr.  Atwater,  were  not  suffered  to  embitter 
his  heart ;  and  to  those  who  know  the  history  of 
the  conflict,  the  article  from  which  I  have  made 
these  extracts  is  one  of  the  finest  examples  of  the 
power  of  Christian  love  in  lifting  the  spirit  above 
all  prejudices  and  partisanships,  which  the  English 
language  affords.  In  the  controversy  and  after  it, 
Dr.  Atwater  was  pre-eminently  "  a  good  man,"  and 
he  retained  to  the  last  the  esteem  and  afl"ection  of 
some  of  those  who  were  most  strenuously  opposed 


*  Presbyterian  Review,  ut  supra,  p.  138. 
t  Presbyterian  Review,  ut  supra,  p.  144. 


62 

to  him,  even  as  they  also  continued  to  be  the  ob- 
jects of  his  sincere  regard. 

But  though  constrained  by  conscience  to  interest 
himself  thus  in  what  may  be  called  the  public  Church 
questions  of  his  times,  he  was  not  neglectful  of  his 
pastoral  work.  One  of  his  successors  in  the  ministry 
bears  this  testimony  to  his  wisdom  and  love  in  the 
matter  of  church  extension  : 

"  Three  substantial  church  buildings,  now  occu- 
pied by  flourishing  congregations,  were  erected  in 
the  town  of  Fairfield  during  his  ministry.  One  was 
for  the  accommodation  of  the  old  church  itself,  and 
it  still  stands  in  its  beauty  to  bear  testimony  to  his 
diligence  and  energy.  Previous  to  its  erection, 
however,  some  members  of  the  church  who  lived 
two  miles  away,  in  the  part  of  Fairfield  known  as 
Southport,  thinking  that  they  could  in  that  way 
serve  the  cause  of  Christ,  asked  and  obtained  the 
consent  of  their  pastor  to  organize  a  new  church, 
and  in  all  the  steps  necessary  to  be  taken  in  building 
both  the  spiritual  and  material  edifice  the  well-be- 
loved pastor  cheerfully  assisted.  Several  years  later 
a  similar  step  was  taken  by  the  people  in  another 
section  of  the  town,  and  the  thriving  church  at 
Black  Rock  was  organized  chiefly  by  the  members 
of  the  old  First  church,  some  of  whom  stifl  live  and 
vie  with  those  who  remained  under  his  care,  in  their 
love  and  admiration  for  their  former  pastor."* 

*  Edward  E.  Rankin,  D.D.,  now  of  Newark,  N.  J. 


63 

What  like  his  public  ministrations  were  may  be 
srathered  from  his  articles  on  "  The  Matter  of  Preach- 
ing,"  and  "The  Manner  of  Preaching,"  *  the  former 
of  which  was  written  in  1856,  just  after  he  had  left 
the  pulpit  for  the  professor's  chair,  and  was  so  highly 
regarded,  that  it  was  credited  to  Dr.  James  W.  Alex- 
ander, and  printed,  by  mistake,  as  his,  in  the  pos- 
thumous volume  on  Preaching  by  that  eloquent 
divine,  which  has  taken  its  place  as  a  standard  in 
the  department  of  Homiletics.  It  may  be  regarded 
as  a  summation  by  himself  of  the  kind  of  work 
which  he  set  himself  to  do  at  Fairfield,  and  it  ought 
to  be  pondered  by  all  young  ministers  and  students 
of  Theology  as  containing,  in  the  briefest  compass, 
the  concentrated  essence  of  the  truth  on  the  subject 
of  which  it  treats.  Judging  from  its  statements  his 
aim  in  the  pulpit  was  to  exalt  God  before  his  peo- 
ple as  Maker,  Preserver,  Benefactor,  Sovereign, 
Saviour,  and  Judge  ;  to  enforce  the  law  under  which 
man  is  placed  ;  to  proclaim  Christ  as  the  object 
toward  which  faith,  love,  hope,  obedience,  and  devo- 
tion are  to  be  directed  ;  to  answer  the  questions. 
What  shall  I  believe  ?  what  shall  I  love  ?  what  shall  I 
do,  in  order  to  lead  a  righteous,  sober,  and  godly 
life,  and  that  when  Christ  shall  appear,  I  also  may 
appear  with  Him  in  glory?  and  to  enforce  the  ex- 


See  Princeton  Review  for  October,  1856,  and  April,  1863. 


64 

ercise  of  religious  principles  and  all  the  virtues  of 
our  holy  religion  in  every  sphere  of  life  and  action. 
With  all  his  leanings  toward  philosophical  studies, 
he  did  not  carry  metaphysics  into  the  pulpit,  and  to 
this  day  the  Fairfield  people  speak  with  gratitude  of 
the  practical  Biblical  instruction  which  they  received 
at  his  lips.  His  great  object  was  to  divide  rightly 
the  word  of  truth,  and  so  "to  glorify  God  and 
bless  men  by  bringing  sinners  to  the  obedience  of  faith 
in  Christ,  and  promoting  their  sanctification,  their 
knowledge,  love,  and  adoration  of  God  ;  their  as- 
similation, conformity,  and  devotion  to  Him  in 
thought,  desire,  word,  and  deed  ;  their  cordial  and 
delighted  communion  with  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Ghost ;  their  love,  gentleness,  meekness,  patience, 
uprightness,  and  faithfulness  toward  their  fellow- 
men."'^  He  had  little  confidence  in  exceptional 
and  spasmodic  methods,  for  reasons  which  he  has 
given  in  his  article  on  Revivals,f  and  which  had  their 
root  in  principles  rather  than  in  mere  taste  ;  but  he 
set  himself  to  the  fullest  improvement  of  the  "or- 
dinary means  of  grace,"  and  sought  thereby  to  ad- 
vance his  people  "  in  all  holy  conversation  and  god- 
liness." So  as  the  years  revolved,  he  had  the  hap- 
piness of  seeing  those  committed  to  his  care  grow- 
ing in  Christian  intelligence,  and  manifesting  "  the 


*  Pr  meet  on  Review,  October,  1856,  p.  659. 
t  Princeton  Review,  January,  1842. 


6,5 

fruit  of  the  Spirit "  in  that  roundness  of  symmetri- 
cal character,  of  which  he  was  himself  so  conspicu- 
ous an  example. 

But  though  he  did  not  take  philosophy  into  the 
pulpit,  he  had  not  forsworn  it  in  the  study  ;  and  in 
the  comparative  leisure  which  a  country  pastorate 
afforded,  he  found  time  for  writing  many  excellent 
contributions  to  the  periodical  press  on  those  sub- 
jects which,  from  the  days  of  his  student  life,  even 
to  the  last,  had  pre-eminent  attraction  for  his  mind. 
His  earliest  article  in  the  Princeton  Review,  on  "  The 
Power  of  Contrary  Choice,"  was  printed  in  1 840,  only 
five  years  after  his  ordination  to  the  ministry,  and 
almost  each  succeeding  year  on  to  the  close  of  his  pas- 
torate, one  or  more  contributions  from  his  pen  ap- 
peared in  its  pages.  The  mental  power  which  these 
productions  evinced  secured  for  him  the  degree  of 
D.D,  from  the  Trustees  of  this  institution  in  1851  ; 
and  so  impressed  them  with  a  sense  of^^his  special 
ability  in  that  department  that  in  1854  he  was  ap- 
pointed by  them  Professor  of  Mental  and  Moral 
Philosophy  in  the  College  of  New  Jersey.  Here 
the  remainder  of  his  life  was  spent,  and  how  quiet- 
ly, how  diligently,  with  what  Christian  humility,  and 
yet  with  what  pure  dignity  ;  with  what  minute  at- 
tention to  his  professional  duties  and  yet  with  what 
patriotic  public  spirit  ;  with  what  unaffected  piety 
and  yet  with  what  human  naturalness,  he  [bore  him- 


66 

self  through  all  those  nine  and  twenty  years,  is  known 
to  every  inhabitant  of  Princeton.  His  change  of 
residence  brought  with  it  a  change  in  his  ecclesiasti- 
cal relationships  ;  but  that  was  easily  consummated, 
for  the  difference  between  the  Consociationism  of 
Connecticut,  to  which  he  had  been  accustomed,  and 
the  Presbyterianism  of  New  Jersey,  to  which  he 
came,  was  not  great ;  and  the  separation  from  beloved 
friends  in  the  neighborhood  of  Fairfield  was  larsfelv 
compensated  by  his  proximity  to  Dr.  Charles  Hodge, 
for  whom  he  had  long  cherished  an  ardent  admira- 
tion, and  whom,  as  the  years  went  on,  he  regarded 
with  an  affection  that  was  allied  to  reverence.  He 
continued  to  write  for  the  Princeton  Review  ;  was, 
probably,  its  largest  contributor,  and  became,  in 
1 869,  its  virtual  and  responsible  editor.  Then  when, 
at  the  reunion  of  the  churches  in  1872,  that  period- 
ical  was  amalgamated  with  the  American  Quarterly, 
he  was  joint  editor  with  Dr.  Henry  B.  Smith,  of 
the  Union  Seminary,  New  York  ;  but  owing  to  the 
feeble  health  of  his  coadjutor,  the  larger  share  of 
the  burden  fell  upon  him,  until,  in  1878,  t\\&  Review 
passed  into  other  hands,  and  assumed  the  character 
which  it  still  maintains.  In  1861  he  was  appointed 
Lecturer  in  the  Theological  Seminary  here,  on  the 
connection  between  Revealed  Religion  and  Meta- 
physical Science,  an  office  which  he  filled  with  mark- 
ed ability  and  success  for  five  years.      In    1862    he 


^7 

was  successful  by  dint  of  great  labor,  and  at  the 
cost  of  a  serious  illness,  in  raising  an  Endowment 
Fund  of  $140,000  for  the  College,  which  was  then 
sorely  crippled  by  the  effect  of  the  civil  war.  In 
the  estimation  of  almost  all  its  friends  the  effort  was 
a  "  forlorn  hope,"  but  the  patient  energy  and  wise 
persistence  of  Dr.  Atwater  made  it  a  complete  suc- 
cess. In  1863  he  was  unanimously  appointed  by 
the  General  Assembly  to  the  Professorship  of  The- 
ology in  the  Allegheny  Seminary,  but,  to  the  joy 
of  all  the  friends  of  Princeton  College,  he  decided 
to  remain  as  one  of  its  Instructors. 

In  1869,  on  the  accession  of  Dr.  McCosh  to  the 
Presidency,  he  cheerfully  consented  to  transfer  the 
subjects  of  Psychology  and  the  History  of  Philos- 
ophy to  that  eminent  metaphysician,  receiving  in- 
stead those  of  Economics  and  Politics,  so  that 
from  that  date  until  his  death  he  was  Professor  of 
Logic,  and  Moral  and  Political  Science.  He  took 
an  interested  and  important  part  in  ecclesiastical 
affairs,  and  was  a  member  of  the  joint  committee 
which  perfected  the  basis  of  union  in  which  the  Old 
and  New  School  Presbyterian  churches  were  able  to 
come  together  ;  and  in  the  various  Assemblies  of 
which  he  was  a  member,  he  was  always  a  guiding 
spirit,  but  never  surely  in  a  more  appropriate  place 
than  when,  as  in  that  of  1880,  he  was  Chairman  of 
the  Judicial  Committee.     In  all  these  ways,  but  es- 


68 

pecially  through  the  pages  of  the  Princeton  Review, 
which  was  so  powerful  in  impressing  the  opinions 
of  its  conductors  on  those  whose  province  it  is  to 
teach  others,  and  through  these  upon  the  Church 
and  the  world,  his  influence  was  widely  exerted,  not 
only  on  theological,  but  on  philosophical,  ethical, 
and  social  subjects. 

But  these  outside  labors,  large  as  they  were,  were 
but  the  overflow  of  a  life  that  otherwise  was  full. 
They  were  but  the  accessories  and  incidental  ac- 
companiments of  his  main  business.  That  business 
was  the  work  of  an  Educator,  and  therein  he  was 
pre-eminent.  Few  men  have  been  more  successful 
than  he  was,  in  training  thinkers.  He  impressed 
all  his  pupils  with  his  perfect  mastery  of  the  sub- 
jects with  which  he  had  to  deal.  They  admired  the 
clearness  of  his  expositions  ;  the  fairness  with  which 
he  stated  the  opinions  of  those  from  whom  he 
differed ;  the  absolute  impartiality  with  which  he 
criticised  the  views  of  others  ;  and  the  candid  spirit 
in  which  he  advanced  his  own.  He  would  not  do 
their  thinking  for  his  students  ;  but  he  furnished 
them  with  the  needful  data,  and  then  encouraged 
them  to  form  their  own  opinions  while  he  stood  by 
ready  to  guide  them  in  the  effort.  They  felt,  more- 
over, that  he  understood  not  only  his  subjects,  but 
his  students.  He  never  forgot  that  he  had  once 
been  a  young  man  himself,  and  he  could  put  him- 


69 

self  back  into  the  place  of  an  undergraduate  and 
look  at  things  from  his  point  of  view,  with  greater 
ease  and  accuracy  than  most  men  of  his  age  and 
acquirements. 

But  all  this  I  give  on  the  evidence  of  testimony, 
for  it  never  was  my  privilege  to  see  him  in  the 
class-room,  and  therefore  I  may  be  pardoned  for  in- 
troducing here  one  or  two  tributes,  corroboratory 
of  what  I  have  just  said,  which  I  have  received  from 
some  of  his  students.  A  member  of  the  class  of  '6i, 
himself  now  a  Theological  Professor,""  thus  writes  : 
"  Dr.  Atwater's  exceptional  success  as  a  teacher, 
now  seems  to  me  to  have  been  due  very  largely  to 
two  things  :  First,  the  force  or  weight  of  his  per- 
sonal character  which  compelled  both  respectful  be- 
havior and  sustained  attention  from  the  class ; 
and  second,  a  power  of  absolute  clearness  in  state- 
ment  and   explication Besides   these,   his 

teaching  was  marked  by  a  trait  which  I  take 
to  be  a  great  merit,  namely,  that  he  threw  himself 
most  heartily  into  great  subjects.  The  doctrines  of 
immediate  perception,  of  real  as  distinct  from  rela- 
tive knowledge,  of  causation,  and  in  moral  science 
of  the  absoluteness  of  the  idea  of  right,  and  of  the 
determination  of  the  will,  were  among  the  subjects 
upon  which  in  our  class  he  placed  the  greatest  em- 


*  Prof.  John  De  Witt,  D.D.,  Lane  Seminary. 


70 

phasis.  I  recall  also  with  what  interest  and  ability 
he  urged  upon  us  the  value  and  fruitfulness  of  for- 
mal Logic  and  Metaphysics  in  a  Lecture,  in  which 
he  attacked  Macaulay's  opposite  contention  in  his 
article  on  Bacon."  Another,"^'  whose  sparkling  let- 
ter I  would  gladly  give  entire  if  time  permitted, 
speaks  as  follows  :  "  His  characteristics  as  a  teacher 
were  these  :  (i)  Sympathy  with  the  student.  He 
respected  the  nature  of  the  pupil.-  He  made  him 
feel  that  he  was  his  friend.  I  may  safely  say  he 
loved  the  boys,  and  consequently  they  loved  him. 
They  sought  his  advice  ;  they  told  him  their  troubles. 
(2)  Simplicity  in  the  presentation  of  truth.  His 
mind  was  as  clear  as  a  bell,  and  his  method  was 
as  clear  as  his  mind.  One  could  not  help  following 
him.  He  possessed  in  a  remarkable  degree  the 
power  of  communicating  to  other  minds  that  which 
lay  in  his  own.  (3)  Suggestiveness.  He  gave  the 
student  credit  for  some  brains.  He  created  an  ap- 
petite, but  did  not  satiate  it.  He  led  the  boys  into 
the  path,  turned  them  in  the  right  direction,  then 
said,  Now  go  on  for  yourselves.  He  removed  the 
scales  from  their  eyes  and  left  them  to  do  their  own 
seeing.  He  understood  the  meaning  of  the  word 
Educate,  and  therefore  his  aim  in  the  class-room 
was  not  to  fill  our  minds  with  his  thoughts,  but  to 

*  Rev.  Thomas  B.  McLeod,  Clinton  Ave.  Con.  Church,  Brook- 
lyn. 


71 

awaken  thought  and  the  power  of  thought  in  us  ; 
not  to  impress  his  mind  on  us,  but  to  draw  out  our 
own."  Another,*  says  :  "  In  all  the  branches  which 
he  taught  he  showed  himself  a  master — always  in- 
teresting, instructive,  and  especially  clear.  His  cus- 
tom was  to  give  us  an  analysis  of  the  Lecture  writ- 
ten out  on  the  blackboard,  and  the  value  of  his 
teaching  largely  lay  in  the  perfect  system  to  which 
he  reduced  everything,  so  that  those  who  ran  might 
read."  A  member  of  the  class  of  '8 if  has  the  fol- 
lowing: "  In  all  his  branches.  Dr.  Atwater's  method 
of  teaching  was  liberal  and  just.  He  had  his  own 
well-defined  opinions,  which  he  did  not  hesitate  to 
affirm  ;  but  to  the  student  he  always  gave  the  largest 
liberty.  In  the  class-room,  at  least  during  more 
recent  years,  the  exercises  often  took  the  form  of 
free  question  and  answer,  in  which  the  student 
was  not  the  only  one  questioned,  and  the  more 
formal  recitation  was  now  and  then  adjourned  in 
favor  of  an  orderly  and  earnest  discussion.  There 
was  in  Dr.  Atwater  no  trace  of  the  disposition  to 
entrap  a  student.  A  recitation  with  him  was  not  an 
opportunity  to  torture  a  youth  into  an  exhibition  of 
all  he  failed  to  know,  but  one  to  draw  out  the  best 
in  each  man,  and  to  bring  out  the  underlying  truths 
of  the  subject  to  the  whole  class."     But  these  ut- 


*  Prof.  W.  B.  Scott,  Princeton.  t  Mr.  A.  C.  Armstrong. 


72 

terances  must  suffice ;  the  rather  as  they  are  only- 
individual  echoes  of  the  great  chorus  of  grateful 
appreciation  that  comes  from  all  who  were  privi- 
leged to  sit  at  Dr.  Atwater's  feet. 

In  the  government  of  the  College  his  influence 
was  as  marked  as  it  was  in  his  own  class-room.  No 
member  of  the  Faculty  contributed  more  to  the 
peace  and  good  order  of  the  Institution  than  did 
he,  and  that  because  he  had  the  implicit  confidence 
alike  of  the  students  and  of  his  fellow-professors. 
He  stood  between  the  two,  and  interpreted  the  one 
to  the  other  ;  nay,  such  was  the  absolute  fairness  of 
his  judgment,  and  the  inherent  kindhness  of  his  heart, 
that  every  student  who  had  so  far  forgotten  himself 
as  to  make  himself  liable  to  punishment,  went  to 
him  for  counsel,  and  never  went  in  vain.  As  one 
has  said,  "Those  who  went  frankly  to  him  in 
trouble  always  spoke  of  his  unfaltering  kindness  and 
sympathy.  The  sin  was  there,  and  he  would  not 
tolerate  nor  palliate  that ;  but  the  wrong-doer,  unless 
hopelessly  depraved,  was  not  an  object  of  condem- 
nation so  much  as  of  pity  and  aid.  He  was  not 
forgetful  of  a  young  man's  heart  and  ways  ;  and  he 
could  see  in  a  young  man's  thoughts  all  the  strength 
and  truth  in  them,  although  he  was  incapable  of 
appreciating  the  peculiar  principles  of  undergradu- 
ate ethics."*     A  touching  illustration  of  the  truth 

*  A.  C.  Armstrong,  class  of  '8i. 


73 

of  these  statements  came  incidentally  to  my  knowl- 
edge, in  connection  with  his  funeral  services.  In 
the  crowd  that  stood  around  his  open  grave,  there 
was  one  who  had  come  all  the  way  from  Chicago 
to  show  his  affection  for  his  beloved  teacher.  And 
well  he  might,  for  when  the  question  had  been  be- 
fore the  Faculty  whether  he  should  be  expelled  or 
not,  Dr.  At  water  had  said  :  "  It  is  true  he  deserves 
expulsion,  but  give  the  boy  another  chance,  and 
perhaps  this  may  prove  the  turning  point  in  his 
career,"  and  the  intercession  had  prevailed,  and  he 
had  taken  the  admonition  to  heart,  so  that  he  was 
there  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  feeling  that  he  owed  all 
he  was  to  his  venerable  instructor.  Thus  for  con- 
siderably more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  he  labored 
at  this  centre  of  education,  sending  his  influence 
not  only  through  this  land,  but  over  the  world  in 
blessing,  and  growing  in  all  the  elements  of  power 
ever  unto  the  last ;  nay,  it  might  even  be  said,  that 
he  was  then  most  lovable  of  all,  and  that  like  the 
sun  he  seemed  "largest  at  his  setting." 

Of  his  long  last  illness  there  is  little  to  be  said.  It 
was  one  of  alternations  ;  sometimes  giving  promise  of 
recovery,and  sometimes  giving  presage  of  dissolution; 
but  through  it  all,  he  was  the  same  quiet,  cheerful, 
undemonstrative,  humble,  unselfish,  always-consider- 
ate-for-others  Christian  that  he  had  been  through 
life.       One  characteristic  circumstance,  illustrating 


74 

the  ruling  bent  of  his  mind,  may  be  given.  In  Oc- 
tober, when  he  was  first  prostrated  with  pneumonia, 
he  would  lie  at  times  as  if  asleep.  After  his  partial 
convalescence,  he  said  to  the  members  of  his  family, 
that  when  they  had  doubtless  considered  him  to  be 
sleeping,  he  was  in  reality  thinking  with  unusual 
energy  ;  that  his  mind  seemed  stimulated  to  extra- 
ordinary acuteness  on  very  profound  subjects,  reach- 
ing with  great  rapidity  conclusions  which  in  health 
would  have  been  arrived  at  only  after  much  longer 
thought.  He  added  that  he  should  like  to  get  well 
enough  to  put  some  of  those  thoughts  on  paper. 
But  he  never  recovered  so  far  as  to  do  that.  The 
fact  is  striking,  not  only  as  showing  the  leanings  of 
his  own  nature,  but  also  as  throwing  at  least  a  little 
light  on  the  dark  mystery  that  enshrouds  the  border- 
land. At  length,  however,  the  darkness  deepened  ; 
or  let  me  rather  say,  the  new  day  dawned — and  on 
the  morning  of  the  17th  February,  1883,  his  spirit 
passed  into  the  presence  of  his  God.  Then  a  few 
days  after,  "devout  men  carried  him  to  his  burial, 
and  made  great  lamentation  over  him." 

In  seeking  to  estimate  Dr.  Atwater's  character 
and  abilities,  we  are  struck  at  once  with  his  great 
versatility.  He  was  not  so  much  a  man  peculiarly 
gifted  in  any  one  particular,  as  fully  developed  and 
well  rounded  in  a  great  many.  His  articles  ranged 
over    theological,    philosophical,    ecclesiastical,    and 


75 

sociological  subjects,  some  of  them  dealing  with 
topics  so  abstruse  as  "  the  power  of  contrary  choice," 
and  others  with  matters  so  practical  as  "  the  venti- 
lation of  churches,"  and  in  all  he  was  at  home, — 
though  if  I  may  speak  from  my  own  judgment 
merely,  he  was  specially  eminent  in  the  department 
of  Political  Economy,  and  treated  questions  relating 
to  currency  and  commerce,  money  and  labor,  wnth 
the  hand  of  a  master.  As  a  student  he  was  almost 
equally  great  in  classics,  philosophy,  and  mathemat- 
ics, and  this  early  balance  was  maintained  through 
life.  His  imagination  was  receptive  rather  than 
creative  ;  and  the  same  was  true  of  his  humor.  He 
did  not  often  make  mirth,  but  those  w^ho  heard  his 
laugh  when  he  was  thoroughly  amused  would  not 
soon  foro-et  its  heartiness. 

His  industry  was  simply  marvellous.  It  seems 
to  me,  that  for  years  he  did  the  w^ork  of  two  or  three 
ordinary  men  ;  and  yet  he  was  never  in  a  hurry. 
He  did  everything  with  deliberation,  and,  I  may 
add,  he  seemed  to  do  everything  with  ease.  He  never 
appeared  to  be  making  an  effort.  Always  he  gave 
you  the  impression  that  there  was  in  him  still  an 
immense  reserve  of  force,  and  that,  if  he  chose,  he 
could  bring  much  greater  strength  into  play.  He  had 
great  practical  wisdom  and  executive  ability,  and 
could  manage  men  and  arrange  details  with  admi- 
rable skill.     On  boards  and  committees,  at  Faculty 


76 

meetinofs,  and  in  ecclesiastical  councils,  he  was  al- 
ways  a  host  in  himself,  and  very  often,  like  "  the 
willing  horse,"  he  got  the  burden  to  carry.  He  was 
pre-eminently  judicial.  Mark  I  said  judicial,  not 
judicious.  Your  mere  judicious  man  will  set  him- 
self to  dodge  difficulties,  but  the  judicial  to  solve 
them.  What  Dr.  Atwater  sought  was  not  so  much 
to  avoid  trouble  and  annoyance,  as  to  get  at  that 
which  was  right ;  and  his  calm,  deliberate  way  of 
looking  at  things,  enabled  him  to  go  all  round  a 
case,  and  reach  its  true  decision.  Had  he  given 
himself  to  the  profession  of  the  law,  he  would  have 
become  the  most  eminent  of  judges — because  his  in- 
herent love  of  righteousness,  and  his  admirable  com- 
mon-sense would  have  brushed  away  all  sophistry 
and  brought  the  truth  to  light. 

But  more  magnetic  than  all  his  mental  qualities  was 
his  tender-heartedness.  It  was  a  true  instinct  that  im- 
pelled the  boys  to  go  to  him  when  they  were  in  per- 
plexity, for  when  they  took  hold  of  his  heart,  they  took 
hold  of  his  strength,  and,  provided  they  dealt  frankly 
and  truthfully  with  him,  they  were  sure  of  his  help. 
Then  pervading  all  his  other  excellences  and  giving 
its  own  tincture  to  them  all,  was  his  simple  and  sin- 
cere piety.  He  was  a  genuine  Christian,  and  his 
Christianity  was  coextensive  with  his  life.  It  lay  over 
it  like  the  atmosphere  ;  it  illumined  it  like  a  sun  ; 
and  like  these  two  in  the   natural  world,  it   brought 


77 

out  in  it  all  the  fulness  of  fragrance,  foliage,  flower, 
and  fruit,  by  which  it  was  enriched.  William  Arnot 
said  of  his  friend,  James  Hamilton,  that  he  would 
be  disposed  to  arrange  his  preaching,  his  books,  and 
his  life  in  the  relations  of  good,  better,  and  best. 
Were  I  to  speak  similarly  of  Dr.  Atwater  as  an  au- 
thor, as  a  professor,  and  as  a  man,  it  would  be  in 
the  same  order  of  comparison.  As  an  author  he 
was  good,  as  a  professor  he  was  better,  but  as  a  man 
he  was  best  of  all.  It  was  a  happy  determination 
of  the  members  of  the  class  of  '83  to  endow  a  prize 
that  shall  perpetuate  his  name  ;  but  it  will  be  a 
worthier  tribute  to  his  excellence,  if  they,  and  all 
who  have  enjoyed  his  instructions,  will  set  them- 
selves to  carry  out  the  principles  which  he  enforced 
upon  them,  and  to  reproduce  that  full-orbed  Chris- 
tian manhood  which  he  so  nobly  exemplified. 


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